ERCOT Organization Backgrounder

Overview

Founded in 1970, ERCOT is an independent, not-for-profit organization responsible for overseeing the reliable and safe transmission of electricity over the power grid serving most of Texas. As the Independent System Operator (ISO) since 1996, ERCOT has been the broker between competitive wholesale power buyers and sellers. The ERCOT ISO also provided the platform upon which Texas' electric utility industry made the transition to retail competition on Jan. 1, 2002.

The Power Grid

Texas' main electric power grid is a network of more than 54,100 miles of long-distance, high-voltage transmission lines and substations that carry bulk electricity to multiple utility companies for distribution to their customers. This grid, which has 86,000+ megawatts of available generation capacity, delivers approximately 90 percent of the electricity used by more than 27 million consumers in Texas.

Coverage Area

The ERCOT region encompasses about 75 percent of the land area in Texas, including the urban load centers of Houston, Dallas, Fort Worth, San Antonio and Austin, as well as most of West Texas, portions of the Panhandle and the Rio Grande Valley. It excludes the El Paso area, Northeast Texas (Longview, Marshall and Texarkana) and Southeast Texas (Beaumont, Port Arthur and The Woodlands).

Members

ERCOT's members include consumers, cooperatives, independent generators, independent power marketers, retail electric providers, investor-owned electric utilities (transmission and distribution providers), and municipally owned electric utilities.

Governance

ERCOT is a membership-based 501(c)(4) nonprofit corporation, governed by a board of directors and subject to oversight by the Public Utility Commission of Texas (PUC) and the Texas Legislature. The ERCOT Board of Directors is a 12-member board consisting of eight directors who are appointed by the State of Texas’ ERCOT Board Selection Committee and who are required by law to not have fiduciary duty or assets in the electricity market for the ERCOT Region, and four ex officio members: the CEO of ERCOT (non-voting), the Public Counsel of the Office of Public Utility Counsel (OPUC), the Chair of the Public Utility Commission of Texas (PUCT) (non-voting), and a PUCT Commissioner designated by the PUCT Chair (non-voting). All board members are Texas residents.

The Technical Advisory Committee (TAC) makes policy recommendations to the board of directors. TAC is assisted by four standing subcommittees, as well as numerous working groups and task forces.

Facilities

ERCOT's operations activities are headquartered in Taylor, about 25 miles northeast of Austin in an 85,000-square-foot operations center and additional 75,000-square-foot facility. An additional backup operations center is located in Bastrop. 

Most board and stakeholder meetings occur at an executive and administration center near Austin-Bergstrom International Airport at 8000 Metropolis Drive.