Important Information About Texas SB 3

What is the Electric Reliability Council of Texas?
This entity manages the flow of electric power to more than 26 million Texas consumers, including those served by Central Texas Electric Cooperative (CTEC). ERCOT is responsible for making sure that the supply of electricity is enough to meet consumer demand, or load, for the majority of the state.

Why are rotating outages or load-shedding events necessary?
When the electric supply provided by all available power generation is not enough to meet consumer demand for power, ERCOT begins emergency operations. During an ERCOT energy emergency, when there is not enough generation to meet consumer demand for power and all other operational tools have been exhausted, power demand must be lowered to avoid uncontrolled blackouts.

During a load-shed event:

• Members must be prepared for a possible power outage without advance warning. As much as possible, all efforts will be made to provide advance notification of ERCOT-mandated load shedding, but there can be circumstances where such a notification isn’t possible.
• Members designated as critical load are not guaranteed an uninterrupted supply of electricity. It is the member's responsibility to arrange for alternative sources of electric power in the event of any outage, including ERCOT load-shedding events.
• Members who depend on electric-powered medical equipment or those designated as critical care or chronic condition with CTEC are not guaranteed an uninterrupted, regular, or continuous power supply. It is the member’s responsibility to arrange for alternative sources of electric power in the event of any outage, including ERCOT load-shedding events.
• Load shedding is a mandatory emergency order from ERCOT based on the available generation and consumer demand. During load-shedding events, CTEC’s ERCOT transmission operator, the Lower Colorado River Authority Transmission Services Corp., is obligated to immediately implement load-shedding procedures. CTEC likely will not have sufficient information to notify members if or when they may lose power or how long the load-shedding event may last.
• In an extreme emergency, ERCOT may require electric utilities to shed large amounts of load over long periods of time. These outages are critical for ensuring the integrity of the state’s electric grid and preventing an uncontrolled system-wide blackout, which could last significantly longer than a load-shedding event.
• CTEC, like all electric utilities in ERCOT’s service area, is required to comply with all ERCOT directions for shedding load until ERCOT ends the energy emergency.

Apply for CTEC's Critical Load or Medical Necessity Registries:

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