Jorge Bermudez has resigned from one of five unaffiliated positions on ERCOT’s Board of Directors after his recent marriage triggered a conflict of interest.

Bermudez’s wife is an officer with an ERCOT market participant affiliate, Citibank. The affiliate is not directly involved in the ERCOT market, but the ISO’s bylaws outline a number of stringent requirements for unaffiliated directors. ERCOT said its legal department determined the relationship to be a conflict “based on those requirements.”

“We have no reason to believe at this time that this conflict resulted in any inappropriate actions during his service to the board,” ERCOT spokesperson Robbie Searcy said. The ISO’s board Tuesday will vote again on any matters that Bermudez participated in during its August meeting “to ensure all board actions of record are consistent with these bylaws,” she said.

“For some odd reason, he chose his wife over ERCOT,” joked Texas Public Utility Commissioner Ken Anderson during the commission’s open meeting Oct. 7.

Anderson and his fellow commissioners closed the meeting by heaping praise on Bermudez. The PUC has regulatory oversight of ERCOT and approved Bermudez’s selection to the board in September 2010.

“He’s such a tremendous gentleman, but what are you going to do with kids today? They run off and fall in love,” Commissioner Brandy Marty Marquez said. “It’s sad to lose him.”

In a statement, ERCOT CEO Bill Magness said Bermudez’s “expertise and careful deliberation, particularly regarding financial matters, will be missed greatly.”

Under ERCOT’s bylaws, the board’s Nominating Committee will select and vote on his replacement, retaining an executive search firm to begin the candidate selection process. The candidate must be approved by both the ISO’s membership and the PUC, with the latter’s approval coming “within a time frame that will … avoid or minimize the length of unaffiliated director vacancies on the board.”

Candidates must have experience in one or more of the fields of: senior corporate leadership; professional disciplines of finance, accounting, engineering or law; regulation of utilities; risk management; and information technology. Candidates must be independent of any ERCOT market participants.

Bermudez had 33 years of experience with Citigroup, retiring in 2008 as chief risk officer. He is currently CEO of the Byebrook Group , a research and advisory firm in the financial services industry.

336 MW of Wind and Solar Added in September

An additional 336 MW of wind and solar began operating in September, according to ERCOT’s latest generator interconnection status report. The new additions were:

• • • Duke Energy Renewables’ 110-MW Los Vientos wind farm in South Texas;
    • Invenergy Wind’s 120-MW Gunsight Mountain Wind Farm in West Texas; and
    • OCI Solar Power’s 106-MW facility, contracted to San Antonio’s CPS Energy, north of Abilene in West Texas

The ISO now has 25,254 MW of wind capacity and 9,391 MW of solar power operating, under study or with signed interconnection agreements.

The additional capacity helped ERCOT set new demand records for October with peaks of 59,359 MW and 59,909 MW, respectively, during the late-afternoon hours of Oct. 5. The Texas grid operator’s final Seasonal Assessment of Resource Adequacy for October and November had projected a peak demand of 54,400 MW this fall.

– Tom Kleckner