Following the deadly blackouts in February that left millions of people without electricity and heat for days in subfreezing temperatures, Texas power grid manager was fired on this Wednesday amid mounting demands for his removal. In the aftermath of one of the worst blackouts in the US history, Bill Magness, CEO of the Electric Reliability Council of Texas, becomes the second senior official to leave.
In a meeting, ERCOT’s board of directors sent Magness a two-month notice of termination. The organisation said in a statement that Bill will continue to serve as President and CEO during this transition time, working with state leaders and regulators on future ERCOT changes.
Magness, who earned over $876,000 in salary and other benefits in 2019, was the focus of much of the outcry over the blackouts that started on February 15th, when a winter storm dropped temperatures to single digits across Texas, triggering a surge in demand for electricity to heat homes. As the system began to fail, grid operators unplugged more than 4 million customers, which Magness said was important to avoid a more catastrophic outage that could have lasted months.
However, millions of residents were without electricity for days, and the extended outages soon developed into a horrific tragedy, with people trying to stay warm dying of carbon monoxide poisoning and others freezing to death. More than 40 people have died in Texas as a result of the storm and the subsequent blackouts, but the full toll will not be known for months.
Last week, lawmakers investigated the outages slammed Magness for his treatment of the storm at the Texas Capitol. Magness testified for hours, defending conduct he said, kept the grid that serves the majority of Texas’ 30 million people intact. That’s why they did it, to save them from slipping into a blackout that they’d still. It didn’t work for people’s lives, but it did work to maintain the system’s integrity. Gov. Greg Abbott a Republican, has accused ERCOT of misleading the state about the grid’s readiness, blaming the outages almost entirely on the grid operators. The state’s Public Utility Commission, which regulates ERCOT and is headed by Abbott appointees, has not shared his indignation.
However, the commission has been increasingly chastised. DeAnn Walker, the chairwoman of the board, resigned after two lengthy appearances before lawmakers in the aftermath of the blackouts, but she said others should take responsibility for the outages as well. In the wake of the blackouts, at least six ERCOT board members have resigned. Many of them lived out of state, which only added to the outrage directed at ERCOT as the crisis progressed.
