SPECIAL TO THE PRESS
AUSTIN — The Electric Reliability Council of Texas says it is continuing to prepare for the upcoming cooler weather.
ERCOT announced Monday, Dec. 4 in a press release that a new group of weatherization inspectors have completed the Certified Weatherization Inspector program.
The new weather inspectors will immediately be deployed into the field to begin inspections of electric generation units and transmission facilities, the press release said.
“There are unique challenges that each weather season in Texas presents for page 1
ERCOT•
the grid. The winter preparedness efforts made by market participants, reinforced by ERCOT weatherization inspections, continue to strengthen the reliability and resiliency of the ERCOT grid,” said Pablo Vegas, ERCOT president and CEO.
According to the press release, ERCOT continues to deploy a comprehensive suite of programs and tools to ensure grid reliability and resiliency during the winter months. Programs include additional ancillary services, an expanded firm fuel supply service and the deployment of additional weatherization inspectors.
“The CWI program is an in-depth training course that requires participants to have a deep understanding of weatherization principles, techniques, and standards,” said Kristi Hobbs, ERCOT vice president of system planning and weatherization. “Their expertise in the field will continue to support our advanced winter preparedness inspections.”
In addition to mentioning the added weatherization inspectors, the press release highlighted some of ERCOT’s winter preparations and grid improvements. ERCOT is entering the third season of winter weatherization inspections with enhanced requirements for generation and transmission facilities, compared to last winter season. The weatherization and inspection program is on track to complete 450 generation resource and transmission facility inspections this winter.
Another improvement mentioned is scheduled maintenance. The press release said ERCOT has worked with generators and transmission operators to schedule equipment maintenance for winter after running hard this past summer.
The press release said ERCOT has also been working on reducing weather forecast error by procuring additional weather forecasts and developing load forecast models that are tuned for extreme cold weather. ERCOT also said it improved the forecasting software testing process related to holidays and other outlier scenarios.
According to ERCOT’s website, there are more than 26 million customers in the organization’s region.
