The blame game over last week’s lengthy outages in Texas that left millions without power has left five out-of-state members of ERCOT’s Board of Directors, including new Chair Sally Talberg, falling on their swords.

In a letter the grid operator filed Tuesday with the Texas Public Utility Commission, Talberg and three independent directors said they are resigning from the board after tomorrow’s emergency teleconference with ERCOT “to allow state leaders a free hand with future direction and to eliminate distractions.”

In a footnote in the filing, the grid operator said Just Energy’s Vanessa Anesetti-Parra, who represents the independent retail electric provider market segment, will also resign from the board after Wednesday’s meeting. ERCOT also said the nominee for the last of its five independent director positions has withdrawn his application.

The grid operator’s leadership has drawn heat from Texas Gov. Greg Abbott, who called for resignations last week. Other lawmakers have criticized the grid operator for including out-of-state residents on its board. (See ERCOT Focuses on Restoration, not Blame.)

“We have noted recent concerns about out-of-state board leadership at ERCOT,” Talberg and the other independent directors said in the letter, which was addressed to their fellow directors.

The letter acknowledged “the pain and suffering of Texans during this past week,” when more than 4 million customers were out of power for hours at a time that led to dozens of deaths. ERCOT said it was “seconds and minutes” away from a total collapse of the grid when it shed 20 GW of load on Feb. 15. (See With Crisis Behind it, ERCOT Now Faces the Music.)

Talberg last week called for an urgent meeting to review the “sustained power outages” and staff’s preparations and decisions. ERCOT executives will also appear before a joint hearing of two Texas House of Representatives committees on Thursday.

“With the right follow-through, Texas can lead the nation in investing in infrastructure and emergency preparedness to withstand the effects of severe weather events,” the directors’ letter said. “We want what is best for ERCOT and Texas.”

The directors recognized ERCOT CEO Bill Magness and the staff for their hard work and dedication.

“The organization is filled with highly specialized, dedicated professionals who bring decades of experience to Texas,” they said. “We have only one thing to ask those of you who remain on the board: Please continue to recognize the fine people at ERCOT and what they do for Texas every day.”

“We look forward to working with the Texas Legislature, and we thank the outgoing board members for their service,” ERCOT said in a statement.

Jeff Dennis, general counsel for trade association Advanced Energy Economy, tweeted that “scapegoating ERCOT’s board here is absurd.”

“To make ERCOT’s leaders targets now (including one who is unquestionably brilliant and has barely been on the board a month) infuriates me,” he said. “ERCOT’s leaders have spent many years implementing a unified vision in Texas for electricity competition. In my experience, that unified vision among politicians, regulators, grid operators, etc., is [incredibly] rare.”

ERCOT’s bylaws require the board to have 16 directors, with five voting members classified as “unaffiliated,” or independent. The chair and vice chair are both required to be independent.

A seven-year member of Michigan’s Public Service Commission and twice its chair, Talberg was only elected as the board’s chair on Feb. 9. Her predecessor, nine-year Chair Craven Crowell, also lived out of state. (See Former Mich. Regulator Talberg to Chair ERCOT Board.)

Talberg does have Texas ties, having gained her master’s degree from the University of Texas at Austin. While in school, she worked with both the PUC and Lower Colorado River Authority.

She has 25 years of experience in energy and environmental regulatory policy. As a commissioner in Michigan, Talberg served on various state, regional and national boards and committees, including a term as president of the Organization of MISO States.

Joining Talberg in signing the letter and resigning were:

• Peter Cramton, a board member since 2015 and the newly elected vice chair. An economics professor at the University of Cologne and the University of Maryland at College Park, he has researched auctions and market design for 37 years, focusing on complex markets. He has advised numerous governments on market design and dozens of bidders in major auctions.
• Terry Bulger, a three-year board member with more than 35 years of banking experience and more than 25 specializing in risk manager. Bulger was to begin a second term in March.
• Raymond Hepper, a first-year director who retired from ISO-NE in 2018 as its general counsel and corporate secretary. After spending most of the 1980s litigating complex tax cases for the Department of Justice, he settled into the utility industry in 1989.

Anesetti-Parra, who resides in Ontario, Canada, has more than 19 years of experience in retail energy. Vice president of regulatory and compliance for Just Energy, she has also worked for Universal Energy and Direct Energy.

ERCOT said that former Consolidated Edison CEO Craig Ivey had withdrawn his application to fill the fifth independent director’s position on the board. Ivey’s nomination had been sent to the PUC for final approval. (See “Con Ed CEO Nominated to Board,” ERCOT Board of Directors Briefs: Oct. 13, 2020.)

“When Texans were in desperate need of electricity, ERCOT failed to do its job, and Texans were left shivering in their homes without power,” Gov. Abbott said in a statement. “The lack of preparedness and transparency at ERCOT is unacceptable, and I welcome these resignations. The state of Texas will continue to investigate ERCOT and uncover the full picture of what went wrong, and we will ensure that the disastrous events of last week are never repeated.”