The Texas Reliability Entity is developing relationships with FERC staff, CEO Lane Lanford told his Board of Directors last week.

“These [meetings with FERC] are becoming more frequent than ever before,” he said during the board’s Feb. 19 quarterly meeting.

Staff were invited to meet with FERC staff in October, which Lanford said was more about building bonds. “Senior staff had some questions for us, but not about particular issues,” he said.

Texas RE staff has also scheduled a conference call in March and another in-person meeting in May with FERC staffers.

FERC staff have “said we didn’t do anything wrong. … ‘We just never see you,’” Lanford said. “I guess they want to see us. That’s good, because we have a positive story to tell.”

Case in point: Violations in the region have dropped from 103 in 2016 to 94 in 2019. With 240 registered entities, the regional entity’s enforcement case load numbers 425 in the first quarter of 2020.

The organization has once again secured a contract as the Public Utility Commission’s Texas Reliability Monitor. Thanks to its work, the PUC issued $602,000 in penalties last year.

Texas RE’s footprint continues to grow. It certified Rayburn Country Electric Cooperative as a transmission operator (TOP) last year before the co-op integrated about 130 miles of transmission lines and 190 MW of load into the ERCOT balancing authority. Texas RE will conduct a similar TOP certification of Lubbock Power & Light, which plans to migrate 470 MW of its load from SPP to ERCOT by June 2021.

COO Jim Albright told the board that the RE is “in the best place we’ve been since I’ve been involved in this.”

“The relationships we’re building with NERC and other regions are the best they’ve been,” Albright said. “They’re in a really good place, and it’s showing.”

Committee Assignments Handed out

The Texas RE board approved placements on several of its committees:

• Crystal Ashby, Milton Lee and Curt Brockmann were appointed to the 2020-21 Hearing Body, with Delores Etter as an alternate. The group, which meets only when a contested case hearing is requested, will select its chairman in the near future.
• Independent Directors Ashby and Etter; affiliated Directors Liz Jones, with Oncor, and Brockmann, with CPS Energy; and Lanford will fill out the Director Compensation Committee, as dictated by the organization’s bylaws. Ashby agreed to serve as the committee’s chair.
• Lee, Etter and Jones will serve on the 2020 Nominating Committee, with Lee chairing. The group will be responsible for finding a replacement for board Chair Fred Day, whose final term expires in December.

Ashby Begins Board Tenure

The board meeting marked Ashby’s first as a director. A Michigan undergraduate — “Go Blue!” she said — Ashby has 32 years of experience in compliance, ethics and risk assessment. Much of her career has been in the energy industry, including time in BP’s government affairs unit during the 2010 Deepwater Horizon oil spill.

“I plan to bring those traits and skill sets to the discussions the board has,” Ashby said.

She also serves as vice chair of The Executive Leadership Council, which is focused on increasing African-American representation in the C suite and on corporate boards. She earned her law degree from DePaul University.

Texas RE to Co-host GridSecCon 2020

A scheduling change to NERC’s annual GridSecCon and Electric Power Human Performance Improvement Symposiums means the Texas RE will be hosting one of these events every three years, beginning this fall, Albright said during the Member Representatives Committee meeting that preceded the board meeting.

The RE will co-host GridSecCon 2020 Oct. 20-23 in Houston with NERC’s Electricity Information Sharing and Analysis Center. “We’ll definitely be doing some heavy lifting,” Albright said.

The Western Electricity Coordinating Council will co-sponsor the Human Performance event Sept. 29 to Oct. 1 in Denver. With each of NERC’s six REs hosting the event, Texas RE’s turn should come up in 2023.

General Counsel Tammy Cooper told the MRC that Texas RE’s draft of a renegotiated regional delegated agreement will be considered by NERC in May.

— Tom Kleckner