Calls on Harris County to leave the state power grid. Is it possible?

HOUSTON Commissioner Adrian Garcia said Harris County should investigate the authority he has to leave the Texas Energy Reliability Council and will propose it in the commission’s court on Friday.

Garcia said he would seek “advice from the provincial attorney about the powers the court or other official prefers to possess under the Texas statutes and the Texas statutes to remove the land from ERCOT’s service area.”

The ERCOT map, which includes most of Texas except El Paso, parts of the Panhandle and more than a dozen counties on the eastern edge of the state, has been around for decades.

In the Houston area, Harris, Fort Bend, Galveston, Brazoria, and Montgomery are within the ERCOT map, while Jefferson and Liberty are part of another network overseen by the Federal Energy Reliability Council.

This has been the case for at least half a century, said Ed Emmett, who has formally served as County County Judge for more than a decade.

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“Can you imagine 254 provinces in the state of Texas all going to think about whether they want to be in ERCOT or some other system?” Emmett said. “It really is not their job.”

Emmett’s home in the Houston area, on the ERCOT network, lost power during the winter storm last week. His cabin in Liberty County, on the MISO network, did not lose power.

“I think there are legitimate questions to ask why some service areas maintain electricity and others do not,” Emmett said. “I find it very difficult to see a role for land commissioners here.”

However, state legislatures do play a role.

“The last time I checked it, lawmakers all represent the same Harris County residents,” Emmett said. ‘It’s going to be a political discussion whether you would better regulate it by the Public Utility Commission (which is overseas ERCOT) or by FERC.

If Harris County could leave ERCOT, Emmett hypothetically said it would then have to rebuild power lines and other infrastructure.

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University of Houston Energy member Ed Hirs said the cost of the new infrastructure would be ‘hundreds of millions of dollars’.

Garcia plans to submit his proposal Friday, which also includes a “formal approval” of a federal investigation into what he calls the “failures and shortcomings” of the state of Texas during the winter storm.

He was not available for an interview Tuesday.