Workers clear snow from a parking lot in Midland, Texas, U.S, on Monday, Feb. 15, 2021. Photo: Matthew Busch/Bloomberg
The Texas utility responsible for shutting off power to millions of Texas residents last week during a record winter storm now faces at least two lawsuits claiming negligence in its failure to prepare for the state's power needs. The lawsuits both seek punitive damages against the Austin-based Electric Reliability Council of Texas Inc., or ERCOT, which operates 90 percent of the state's power grid. They claim the utility did not prepare residents for possible rolling blackouts and failed to winterize electrical equipment.
One lawsuit, filed on Thursday in Harris County District Court, seeks $10 million in damages on behalf of a man using medical equipment while recovering from Covid-19. Prominent plaintiffs lawyer Mikal Watts of Watts Guerra in San Antonio filed the second lawsuit in Nueces County Court at Law.
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"This cold-weather event and its effects on the Texas energy grid were neither unprecedented, nor unexpected, nor unforeseen," wrote Patrick Luff, of Dallas-based Fears Nachawati, who filed the complaint with Watts.
The lawsuits are the first filed against ERCOT after more than 3 million in Texas lost power due to a winter storm that hit last week, dumping as much as nine inches of snow in parts of the state. The outages, down to less than 127,000 by last Friday according to Poweroutage.us, caused many to go without heat in their homes as temperatures dropped into the single digits.
Dozens have died in Texas from weather-related conditions. Texas Governor Greg Abbott said there will be an investigation of ERCOT. Lawyers filed the complaints, despite having their own challenges during the week with burst pipes, closed courthouses, and intermittent Internet.
"It has become necessary to bring this action because of serious injuries and damages sustained by plaintiffs as a result of the dangerous acts and omissions of the defendants leading up to Winter Storm Uri, and during it," wrote Francis Spagnoletti, of Spagnoletti Law Firm in Houston in last Thursday's lawsuit. "Unfortunately, for plaintiffs, and literally millions in the state of Texas like them, ERCOT failed to adequately assess the electricity needs of Texas' residents. ERCOT's forecast for the maximum electricity that would be consumed far underestimated the reality. As a result, millions were plunged into darkness and cold as a result of a loss of electricity."
The suit names as defendants both ERCOT and Houston-based CenterPoint Energy Inc., which cut off electricity to Daysi and Mauricio Marin, of Fort Bend County. Mauricio Marin has been a convalescent at home for the past few months recovering from Covid-19. "As a result of the loss of power and his inability to run medical equipment, his life has been threatened," the complaint says. The suit seeks more than $10 million in damages for physical disability, pain and suffering, loss of earnings, and medical expenses.
Friday's lawsuit, filed by Donald McCarley, a resident of Corpus Christi, names ERCOT and the American Electric Power Company Inc. (AEP) and its subsidiary, AEP Texas Inc. The lawsuit alleges that the Texas power grid last week peaked at 69,000 megawatts, far fewer than the 125,000 megawatts needed to cool homes during a regular summer.
"As energy demand rose in February 2021, the supply of energy fell as outdated power generators failed, including power generators owned and operated by defendants AEP and AEP Texas, depriving the Texas power grid of 45,000 megawatts of energy," the suit says. "Defendants ERCOT, AEP, AEP Texas, and others could have increased electric production capacity in Texas in the days and weeks leading up to the February 2021 cold-weather event but consciously chose not to do so."
They also opted against weatherizing and updating their generation, transmission, and distribution facilities, despite similar blackouts in 1989 and 2011, after which both the Public Utilities Commission of Texas and the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission recommended Texas upgrade the power grid to prepare for freezes due to cold weather, the suit says.
In addition to negligence, the suit alleges a private nuisance and violation of Texas property law.
From: Texas Lawyer
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Amanda Bronstad
Amanda Bronstad is the ALM staff reporter covering class actions and mass torts nationwide. She writes the email dispatch Law.com Class Actions: Critical Mass. She is based in Los Angeles.
