The Texas Public Utility Commission on Tuesday announced eight appointees to the Texas Energy Reliability Council (TERC), a 25-person, cross-industry group created in the wake of February’s devastating winter storm to help guide efforts that address critical infrastructure issues.
Hunt Energy Network CEO Pat Wood, former chair of both the PUC and FERC, was named as one of three “thought leaders” representing energy sectors without an advocate on the council. His company develops and operates distributed energy resources.
The other thought leaders are Thomas McAndrew, founder and CEO of backup power provider Enchanted Rock, and Charlie Hemmeline, executive director of the Texas Solar Power Association.
The PUC also named five members to represent various electric sectors:
- Lori Simpson, Exelon’s director of wholesale market development, for entities that provide dispatchable energy;
- Liz Jones, Oncor’s vice president of regulatory affairs, for transmission and distribution utilities;
- Catherine Webking, general counsel for the Texas Energy Association for Marketers, for retail electric providers;
- Tom Hancock, Garland Power & Light’s deputy general manager, for municipally owned utilities; and
- Clif Lange, South Texas Electric Cooperative’s manager of wholesale marketing, for electric cooperatives.
Texas Gov. Greg Abbott in September also appointed interim ERCOT CEO Brad Jones and five other members representing industrial concern to the council. (See “Brad Jones Named to Reliability Council,” ERCOT Mothballed Resources Return to Year-round Ops.)
TERC was created earlier this year by legislation to ensure that Texas’ energy and electric industries “meet high-priority human needs and address critical infrastructure concerns” and to “enhance [the industries’] coordination and communication.”
“It’s a very, very broad group of individuals,” Lange said during a Gulf Coast Power Association workshop Tuesday. “Natural gas and electric coordination was certainly an area that was lacking [during the winter storm]. This will facilitate discussion and improve coordination and provide a single location for a lot of this information to be exchanged.”
The Texas Railroad Commission (RRC), which regulates the state’s gas and oil industries, has five representatives on TERC.
W. Nim Kidd, chief of the state’s Division of Emergency Management, has been named TERC’s presiding officer. Other senior leaders include PUC Chair Peter Lake; RRC Chair Wayne Christian; Jon Niermann, chair of the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality; and J. Bruce Bugg Jr., chair of the Texas Transportation Commission.
The council has already held an organizational meeting and will meet for the first time as a full group on Monday.
