ERCOT
Pablo Vegas is CEO of the Electric Reliability Council of Texas.
The Electric Reliability Council of Texas, ERCOT, manages the flow of electric power to some twenty-seven million Texan customers, which represents about ninety percent of the state’s electric load. It’s a big undertaking with a lot of responsibility.
As the Independent System Operator for the region, ERCOT schedules power on an electric grid that connects more than fifty-four thousand miles of transmission lines and one thousand two hundred fifty generation units. It also performs financial settlement for the competitive wholesale bulk-power market and administers retail switching for nearly eight million premises in competitive choice areas.
To find out how that all gets done in a challenging time in the energy and utilities industry, Public Utilities Fortnightly went to the leader of ERCOT. CEO Pablo Vegas took time from his busy schedule in the Lone Star State and shared how ERCOT keeps the lights on in a grid that covers about seventy-five percent of Texas.
PUF’s Steve Mitnick: As ERCOT’s CEO, what do you do on a typical day?
Pablo Vegas: ERCOT operates the flow of electricity and balances the electric grid for the majority of Texas. About ninety percent of Texans are inside of the ERCOT service area.