San Antonio Chamber And Partner Chambers Meet With Brad Jones, Interim President & Chief Executive Officer Of Ercot

Press release from the San Antonio Chamber of Commerce - News:

December 17, 2021

The San Antonio Chamber of Commerce, in partnership with the San Antonio Hispanic Chamber of Commerce, the North San Antonio Chamber of Commerce, and the South & West Chamber of Commerce participated in a listening tour with Brad Jones, Interim President & Chief Executive Officer of Energy Reliability Council of Texas (ERCOT). Jones’ intent was to discuss the state’s power grid with San Antonio elected officials and business leaders and hear their concerns and questions.

The San Antonio Chamber would like to thank Phil Green, our 2022 Chair of the Board and Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of Cullen/Frost Bankers, Inc., and Frost Bank, for hosting this important briefing at the Frost Tower.

During this timely briefing, Jones shared that during Winter Storm Uri in February 2021 there were challenges and failures in production, transmission and distribution of power, but he believes ERCOT’s biggest failure was communications. Jones also shared that ERCOT recognizes that better communications would have helped with decision making and moving forward, and Texans can expect far better communications from ERCOT in the future. Jones also shared that ERCOT is inspecting power generators across the state, and it will continue to do so through December 29, 2021. Of the approximately 300 units in the state, the focus is on the units that lost the most power. Finally, Jones stated that reliability should be at the forefront of everything ERCOT does and provides.

The Texas Department of Emergency Management (TDEM) and the Public Utility Commission (PUC) are now in direct contact with ERCOT. PUC is expected to consider and approve a new market proposal on December 16, 2021. Count on your Chamber to share this expected information once it is available.

For more information, please contact Cacie Madrid, VP of Public Policy at cmadrid@sachamber.org or by phone at (210) 229-2161.

This press release was produced by the San Antonio Chamber of Commerce - News. The views expressed here are the author’s own.