(indistinct chatter) (gavel bangs)
-: I've always wanted to do that (chuckles).
So at 9:32, I will call this meeting
of the Electric Supply Chain,
Security and Mapping Committee to order.
We'll do a roll call first.
So I'm Thomas Gleason,
I'm the Executive Director of the Public Utility Commission
and I'm also the Chair of this committee.
And with me is Wei Wang,
Executive Director of the Railroad Commission
and Vice Chair of this committee.
We have two other members of the committee
who could not be here today.
TDEM Chief, Nim Kidd, and Brad Jones,
who was interim CEO and President of ERCOT.
They were called away to be out of Austin
on urgent business.
So, we'll miss them, but they can go back
and watch this recording at a later date.
Just to kind of set the stage for everyone watching
and everyone in here.
Basically what we're gonna do
is we're gonna have updates from the different project teams
that we created last summer at our first meeting,
that cover all the different requirements
that this committee is supposed to be looking at.
All the different policy areas
and I've asked people to do no more than five
to seven minutes on that,
so they can take questions as well.
And we'll run through this, I think pretty efficiently.
And yeah, that's basically the plan for this meeting.
We'll also be discussing at a later date
as big milestones come up with this committee
having a future public meetings like this
so that the public and market participants
can hear the work that's going on
in relation to this committee.
And Wei if you have any opening comments,
happy to hear them.
-: Yes, thank you Chairman.
I think the Mapping Committee,
the work we've been doing is a great example
of collaboration as we work with implemented legislation
passed during last session.
And thanks to the hard work that our staff has been doing.
I think we made major progress,
and I feel good to say that I think that the state
as a whole is better prepared.
And I think every Texan should be assured
that we're taking every measure to ensure just that.
And we're glad to be a major part of the solution
to protect every Texan in a energy emergency.
So with that, I'll turn it back you.
-: Perfect, thank you.
So the first team we're gonna hear from
is our Report team, Tom Hunter, who's on PUC staff.
We had a statutory deadline of getting a report
that had specific requirements in it
done in to the legislature by December 31st.
We met that deadline, so we've asked Tom to come
and give an overview of the contents of that report.
So Tom, I'll turn it over to you.
-: Good morning.
Yes, the Mapping Report was submitted early, in December.
And generally speaking,
the report had to address three broad areas.
I'm gonna touch briefly on all of those.
Some of the teams that are behind me,
will get into a little bit more detail.
So, basically the report was required
to address three areas.
One, the status of the committee's findings
regarding the supply chain and identifying critical sources
needed to operate critical infrastructure.
And then second, recommended communication system
among the committee members,
and the electric and gas industries
to prioritize critical infrastructure service
during weather emergencies.
And finally, recommending best practices, and oversight,
and compliance standards to prepare the electric
and gas industries to serve critical infrastructure
in those difficult times.
The report was required by the legislature
only to be submitted once,
but this committee has committed to updating the report,
at least every,
bi-annually to coincide with
the PUC's Agency Report,
that's due January 15th, of every odd numbered year,
to prepare for the legislature.
So, we've committed to do that.
So briefly on the status of the Supply Chain Map,
much work has been done
by all the agencies of the committee,
the Railroad Commission, PUC, ERCOT, and TDEM.
Using data from each of these existing agencies
to basically identifying, collecting, consolidating,
all of this data regarding critical infrastructure
to use in creating the Supply Chain Map.
We're also using third-party data sources for some of this.
The PUC, ERCOT and the Railroad Commission
have also entered into an MOU, memorandum of understanding,
to share this data, much of which is confidential.
So we need to figure out how best to do that.
And then we need to,
once we get that data and consolidate it,
we need to put it in a form where we can actually use it.
And that's what's going on right now.
Committee teams have met regularly since August
and sometimes weekly, actually to get this work done.
So they're working very, very hard to gather data
from the gas and electric industries as well.
Supply Chain Map, primarily their use will be for TDEM
in weather emergencies.
And so we want to make sure that we consult,
and we have been consulting with TDEM
to make sure the map has the elements that they need,
when they need to use the map in weather emergencies.
Also critical in all of that is the Railroad Commission
and PUC have adopted critical natural gas facilities rules,
both of which were done in November.
Those are kind of the key to identifying
what types of facilities need to be on this map.
So we've defined what those are.
Now, we need to identify them and find them
and put them on the map.
And then the report goes into more detail
about each of those rules.
So the second piece of the report is communication system
to ensure the electricity to critical infrastructure.
And basically we have outlined the steps
that the industries have taken to prepare
for the winter of 2021 and 2022.
And again, much coordination among in between these agencies
since the summer of '21 to share information.
The EDs you two meet regularly to talk about
various implementation issues, legislative issues,
current issues, mapping issues.
So there's a lot of coordination between our two agencies.
The Railroad Commission has done extended preparation,
they've held industry seminars,
issued notices to industry to make needed preparations
for cold weather and reminding gas operators
to complete their forms
to be designated as critical customers
for their electric utilities.
And they've conducted approximately 3000 site visits
to various types of facilities
to check on winter preparation.
ERCOT has required gas generators
to identify pipelines that serve each of these generators
so we know where they are and who they are.
They've adopted a crisis communication plan
to communicate with key constituencies,
including the public and the legislature.
And they've hired a Director of Weatherization
and Inspection to oversee ERCOT inspection,
site inspections, and they even conducted
approximately 300 generator site visits
for winter readiness,
focusing on units that that may have had problems in 2021.
TDEM has also been involved in this.
We're actively communicating with them
on things that they need from us.
Finally, the third part of the report,
best practices and compliance standards.
We use that as a way
to update our legislative implementation progress
and much has been done on that.
The PUC Weatherization Rule was adopted in October of 2021
requires generators to adopt winter readiness standards
by December 1st of '21, and attest that they've done that.
All of our generators have now done that.
And phase two of the Winter Weatherization Rule
will be a more comprehensive year-round Weatherization Rule
that we hope to get adopted in 2022.
We have several other rulemakings in process,
including emergency operations plan,
power outage alert criteria,
review of administrative penalty authority.
All of these are ongoing
and we hope to have adopted by 2022.
Those are the main things, the PUC and Railroad
are doing all we can to enhance communication
and coordination among these industries.
That's the overarching goal of all of these efforts
between the gas and electric industries.
And we think we're doing a good job
and the report I think does a good job
of outlining all those efforts
in order to better serve all Texans.
So, happy to take any questions.
-: Thanks, Tom.
And I think it's in the point you made about the report
and doing it iteratively going forward is an important one.
And I wanna thank the rest of the committee
for agreeing to do that.
That was actually my recommendation coming out of
some legislation that was passed in 2011,
after the last rotating outages we had.
Where the PUC was required to review
emergency operations plans and produce a report once.
And during the last legislative session,
we heard that even though the law required only one report
that we should have been doing this iteratively.
And so we're going to adopt that standard
for the reports coming out of this committee.
And so I really appreciate that.
-: Yeah, thank you Chairman.
I think that's a great suggestion.
The report should be at living document, so is the map.
I think as things change,
we should update the report and map accordingly
to reflect what's going on in the state.
-: Absolutely.
All right, Tom, thank you. -: Thank you.
-: So the next project team lead,
we'll call up Therese Harris with the Mapping Team.
I think the map is what gets the most coverage
coming out of this as it's in the committee's name.
And also some other work that'll be done,
particularly at the Railroad Commission
has kind of pegged to this map getting completed.
So Therese, thanks for being here and go ahead.
-: Well, thank you.
And good -: Good morning.
morning, Wei, Thomas.
And before I reach out and let you all know
what to expect in Q1 2022,
I'd like to go back and give you a bit of background.
So the weekly mapping meetings began in July, 2021.
Initial activities included review of the information
maintained by the PUC and the Railroad Commission
to identify information that needs to be gathered
to build out the Electricity Supply Chain Map.
And two, we determined a method to share data sets
to satisfy the security and the data requirements
of the Mapping Team.
These weekly meetings have also included ERCOT and TDEM.
And initial meeting with TDEM
was held to begin the conversation
to build out attribute tables that would be necessary
for end-users during an activation
at the State Operations Center.
In October of 2021,
the Mapping Team began to meet twice a week.
The second mapping meeting is a work session
for our GIS specialists,
from the PUC and the Railroad Commission to share data,
discuss mapping techniques, work through mapping issues,
and inform workflow and process documents.
To date, the PUC's completed work
includes the following activities.
We have conducted an inventory
of our current electric datasets
that includes transmission lines,
electric generation facilities,
and transmission substations.
We have researched options to update
the current electric datasets.
We have received electric data sets
from several outside sources.
We have converted data provided by ERCOT into a format
that can be used with the PUC's mapping software.
And we have shared information in GIS format
with the Railroad Commission
of the natural gas dependent generating facilities
in the ERCOT power region.
So ongoing work at the PUC includes data preparation,
and this is really ongoing.
It's comparing data from multiple sources
and compiling it into a single reliable dataset
for preparation and inclusion
into the electricity supply chain map
and building the geo database that is maintained by the PUC
to not only include the physical location
of generating facilities, electric transmission,
and distribution lines and substations
that end users will be able to view on a map.
But to also include sufficient attribute table
to ensure that the electricity supply chain map
can be easily used and understood by end users
in emergencies and contains sufficient, unique,
identifying information to communicate with ERCOT,
electric utilities, and generating facilities
so that we can quickly obtain
any additional information requested by the end users.
And as I mentioned, TDEM is an example of our end user.
So today the Railroad Commission's completed work
includes the following activities.
The Railroad Commission has set up a data team
for departmental validation of information
to be included in the Electric Supply Chain Map.
They have documented their workflow process
to gather, update, and maintain data tables.
Ongoing Railroad Commission work includes
multiple data requests to inform identification
of critical infrastructure sources
an example of which is not exhaustive
includes natural gas production wells,
natural gas storage facilities, and compressor stations
that are part of the electricity supply chain.
So, they have also connected
identified critical infrastructure sources
to the natural gas dependent generating facilities
in the ERCOT power region.
There are building corresponding data tables
to be included in the geo database
that is maintained by the PUC.
So ERCOT has worked with the PUC to provide digital data
in a secure manner that is needed
to build out the electricity supply chain map
in the ERCOT power region.
Information provided to the PUC,
includes locational and attribute data relating
to transmission, substation, and generating facilities
ERCOT's work on this project has been truly invaluable.
So what to expect for Q1 2022,
we're gonna continue to build out the database.
We're gonna continue to work
to fill gaps in the geo database.
We're gonna share data sets
between the Railroad Commission, PUC, ERCOT, and TDEM.
This is a past and current activity.
We're gonna continue the conversation with TDEM
and the PUC and Railroad Commission staff
that are activated to the SOC during an emergency
to make sure that all the critical attribute information
is included in the electricity supply chain map.
We will refine our data.
We will seek input from electric utilities,
immunities and electric cooperatives with transmission
to confirm certain transmission information.
And this would be primarily in the non-ERCOT areas.
And as critical infrastructure sources are identified
and uploaded from the Railroad Commission to the PUC
on our shared space, the Mapping team will request
specific distribution level data
to the identified critical infrastructure sources
from the utilities.
So, we will have meetings with electric utilities
to discuss confidential sharing
of the distribution level data
to connect the critical infrastructure sources
which are loads,
which have been identified by the Railroad Commission
to the transmission system.
We're going to connect the critical infrastructure sources
identified by the Railroad Commission
to the electricity supply chain
via the relevant distribution data
that we receive from the utilities.
And finally, we will be testing our map.
And so one observation that I have
is that the Railroad Commission
is working to identify the critical infrastructure sources.
And as I mentioned, those are storage facilities,
compressor stations, processing plants
that are part of the electricity supply chain.
And while these critical infrastructure sources
may be placed on a map,
they will not be connected to the electricity supply chain
until the committee obtains and maps
the electric distribution level data
from the load from the critical infrastructure source
and connects it to the transmission system
via the distribution line data.
And to incorporate this information
into the electricity supply chain in an expedient manner,
the committee expects to provide electric utilities
with lists of the easy IDs in areas open to competition
or premise identifiers in areas not open to competition
when possible to allow the electric utilities
to quickly identify the needed information
and provide it to the committee.
So that's what I have.
-: Thanks, Theresa.
And I think that's an important point
for everyone to remember.
This is gonna be an iterative process,
we'll get a first run map.
We've committed, although the statute requires it to be done
by the end of this fiscal year, by September.
We've committed to get a first run map out
in April which I think is really important.
But it may not be as granular as we would like it.
We need to get distribution level information,
that's very important to making sure
that we can map the entire electric supply chain.
Do you have a sense that first run map
that we produce in April kind of how far back
that will be able to go based on kind of the information
we have now and where you see the information?
How fast do you see the information coming in?
-: Well, from the Railroad Commission side,
I believe that the Railroad Commission
is going to try to get the information
all the way back to production.
So where possible,
they will contact the natural gas suppliers
or the pipeline operators
to see who supplies the natural gas to them.
It's not always possible from what I understand
in my conversations with the Railroad Commission
due to gathering line systems
and certain sales of natural gas,
but where possible they will go back
all the way to production.
For the PUC is just really critical to remember
that the electric distribution line data
is absolutely essential and is needed
from the electric utilities
in order to connect the information
that we get from the Railroad Commission
to our electricity supply chain map.
-: Absolutely, yeah.
And we'll be requesting that information
and expect the utilities will have no problem
providing that to us.
-: Sounds great.
-: I think from what I'm hearing,
we're trying to kind of close a loop.
I think the methodology we have been using
started with the power generators and back off
from the directly served pipeline all the way to production.
And now the other side of the map
is electric distribution system going to these facilities.
Is that correct?
-: That's correct.
And it's dependent on the identification
of the critical infrastructure sources
by the Railroad Commission.
As soon as that becomes available,
then we can turn around and make that request
to the electric utilities.
-: Now, Chairman I also have Jason Clark
who is the Col Lead on this team.
And if you don't mind, -: Absolutely.
I'd like to ask him to -: Jason, come on up, please.
give a brief update on the preliminary map layers
and the work that he has been doing.
-: Sure, thank you, Wei.
As Therese said, and as Wei said,
we have been working diligently all staff members
with regard to monitoring, updating,
going into all of our disparate systems
and pulling the information
not only for processing plant information,
underground storage facility information,
but those mentioned inside the bill.
So on our preliminary map layer,
what we've tried to do is through our communication
and our successful meetings, identify those points
and start looking at where they're gonna coincide
with the electrical generated facilities
and the power generation facilities
that require natural gas to operate.
So we've been quite successful.
I think our meetings have been very productive,
not only identifying the sources,
but also looking at the map collaboratively
and understanding how all these pieces
are gonna fit together.
So I'm really excited about the progress
we've made thus far.
Wei: Good, thank you.
Thomas: That's great. -: Okay.
-: Is there anything that you all need
from this committee going forward
to help you all accomplish your goals?
-: Well, to be perfectly honest,
I think you've already mentioned it,
Thomas, and I really appreciate it
and that is the electric utilities coming alongside us
to help us close the loop
and complete the electricity supply chain map.
-: Perfect. -: Okay.
-: Thanks y'all. -: Thank you.
-: Appreciate it.
So the next team we're gonna hear from Weatherization,
Ramia.
And then Wei, did you want RJ
to come up as well? -: RJ, can you?
Perfect. -: Yes.
Thank you chairman.
-: Good morning. -: Good morning.
-: So I'm gonna repeat everything
that Tom already said.
So the PUC adopted the Weatherization Rule
in October of last year.
And the generators and TSPs, transmission service providers,
had to implement the Winter Weather Readiness
recommendations from the 2012 Quanta report.
And the TSPs had also to implement the key recommendations
that were laid out in NRC-FRC report from 2011.
Additionally, we also requested
that all the ERCOT generators and TSPs
remedy any known and acute failures
that happened from the winter of 2020 and 2021.
So per our rule language by December 1st,
all the ERCOT generators and TSPs
provided the Winter Weather Readiness Reports.
And those described all the activities that were undertaken
to comply with the winter weather readiness.
And we also got all the notarized attestation
from the highest ranking official from all the entities.
Eight companies representing 13 generation resources
missed the filing deadline,
and PUC staff had recommended
administrative penalties against these reporting failures.
Like Tom mentioned, 302 electric generation units
were inspected by ERCOT
and about 10 resources
had identified potential deficiencies.
They were pretty minor
and most of them have already been corrected.
The resources had a total capacity of about 1.7%
of the total ERCOT generation fleet.
ERCOT also noted that many of the generation entities
adopted winter weatherization measures
that went above and beyond what our rules required.
ERCOT inspected 22 transmission service facilities,
mostly substations.
And there were about six facilities
that had some minor deficiencies,
but they've all been corrected.
ERCOT will be filing their final report,
summarizing their inspection findings on January 18th, 2022.
Internally, PUC staff has already started the phase two
for the weather preparedness, which will
cover weatherization for all seasons,
for electric generators and TSPs.
The public more formal process will commence
in the second quarter of 2022.
So, if you have any other questions.
-: So Ramia, based on that timeline,
when would you anticipate that our phase two rule
would be in effect?
-: Definitely before the winter of next year,
the next winter of 2022.
Thomas: Thank you.
-: Thomas, Wei, thanks.
The report that was submitted to the legislature
included a section about our site visits,
and I wanted to talk a little bit more
about our site visits regarding winter preparations.
We're getting some valuable information from these visits,
and it's essentially a concept that we're utilizing,
where it's a boots on the ground,
eyes on the assets approach,
where our inspectors from different divisions
are able to directly observe the devices and methods
that are being implemented by operators
as they get ready to prepare for any type
of a winter weather emergency, if they need to deal with it.
The types of facilities, pardon me, that we're visiting
include oil and gas leases,
with the active producing wells and disposal wells,
underground natural gas storage facilities,
gas processing plants, and transmission pipelines,
both pipelines that directly serve
gas fired power generators and transmission pipelines
that transport natural gas.
We started these site visits towards the end of the summer,
and we are continuing them through the winter time,
and we'll continue them over the coming months.
One thing to note about this,
is that we're getting some very important information
about best practices from these site visits.
Not just from the direct observations that we're doing,
but also through conversations that we've had
with operators in Canada, for example,
which, who often have to deal with significant
winter emergencies.
And we've also had calls with executives
from large oil and gas producing companies.
So, utilizing all that information,
we compiled that information into the best practices section
of the report that Tom talked about.
We've also sent notices to operators
on these best practices.
We've also had several webinars,
industry specific webinars on winter preps.
And one of those was actually conducted by
a major oil and gas producer here in the state,
in which they were able to impart their information
to their peers.
Final note, obviously we've talked about,
information gets updated.
So, in terms of the site visits,
we've conducted more than 3, 700 visits so far,
and they've encompassed oil and gas leases
with more than 21, 000 active wells,
underground gas storage facilities that account
for about half of the states gas storage,
92 transmission pipelines that directly serve
gas fired power plants,
and more than 260 transmission pipelines
transporting natural gas.
So, a significant number.
And as I mentioned, we'll continue those.
-: So, needless to say, a lot of work.
-: A lot of work, yes.
We're utilizing inspectors from our different divisions,
oil and gas, pipeline, safety, critical infrastructure.
-: And this may actually be a question for you, Wei.
Is this inspection program, is this something
you all stood up recently,
or has this been kind of a program that you've had ongoing?
-: This is a program we started toward the end of the summer,
you know, getting ready for this upcoming winter.
And two purposes of that, is like what RJ was saying,
we want to go physically visit these facilities,
and ask questions, and make observations.
Looking at what kind of methodology processes,
equipment they're putting on their assets.
And then when we can verify they're preparing
or taking measures.
I think among all of the facilities that we have visited,
every single one of them have taken some measures,
and many of them completed, I think a majority of them
already completed their preparation.
Keeping in mind that we started this in the summer.
So some of them were still in the process.
So I think the second part of this is also is informative
in coming up with our weatherization best practices,
in which, end up in our report.
And also we have been sharing that with other producers.
To make sure that they are made aware of other things
or creative ideas that people are using to prepare.
-: Yeah. I mean, just for context, I mean,
that's a tremendous amount of work to stand up a program.
And then, within four to six months,
have done 3, 700 site visits.
I think is a lot of really good work.
RJ: So good. Yeah.
-: Yep. I think we have mobilized about 250 inspectors
from various divisions, and everybody is pitching in,
and we provided the training,
and they have been out there for three, four months,
and they'll continue that effort through this winter.
-: That's great.
Do you all need anything from this committee?
-: Thank you, Thomas.
We've been, I think a lot of help from the industry
and from ERCOT and the Commission.
It's very good. Thank you.
-: We're good.
-: Thank you.
-: Thanks y'all, appreciate it.
So we've heard some about critical facilities.
We'll, hear from David Smelser, and from RJ,
about an update on critical facilities.
Mr. Smelser, good morning.
-: Ah, thanks Thomas.
A lot of what there is to say about critical facilities
is sort of been discussed at length at the open meetings
of both the public utility Commission
and the Railroad Commission.
I think as we know, the most significant movement
in this area has been the implementation of HB 3648,
which is our effort to coordinate the two industries
by having the Railroad Commission identify critical
facilities and having the utility Commission direct their
utilities to incorporate information about these critical
facilities into their load shed and power restoration plans.
The general goal, just being to help these two industries
coordinate better in an emergency and make sure
that generators get the gas that they need to stay on
to the extent that, that is an ongoing issue.
The details of the rulemaking, I won't get into too much,
cause we've discussed that at length,
but I will say that this committee worked diligently
in between the proposal and adoption stages
of these rulemakings to respond to issues
from the legislature and general public concern.
And some of those issues might be,
we wanted to narrow the scope.
The Railroad Commission did a great job
of narrowing the scope of what is considered
a critical facility, to sort of combat the,
if everything's critical, nothing is critical,
sort of problem.
And they did that through sort of a further parsing
out the categories of entities through things like
production volumes and things.
So that only the most critical resources would be
sort of viewed as critical.
And they also moving the other direction.
I think did a good job of working with
their exemption provision to make sure
that truly critical facilities would not qualify
to apply for exemption.
And that work will continue because additional facilities
that are identified as critical on the Supply Chain Map
will also be ineligible to apply for exemption.
And in fact, if they're not designated as critical,
now, they will be required to have critical status based on,
the outcome of the mapping.
The team also worked really hard to streamline
the requirements for industry sake so that,
the highlight of this was the one form solution
so that entities could get everything that they needed
on one sheet that would go to the Commission
and the utilities and everything.
And it's gonna be a lot more streamlined
than it was in the proposal stage.
Since the passage of those.
I know that I'll let my colleague speak about that,
but I know both agencies have done outreach
within their industries to make sure that
the critical gas facilities were providing the information
and that the electric utilities were prepared to receive it.
On the Commission side, we have rolled out our website
that has the contact information
in each of the critical facilities
is supposed to provide their information to.
On that website today, one of the next steps,
I think it's gonna be ready today.
We're working on initial guidance document,
which is going to assist utilities and knowing
basically how to make best use of this critical information.
So under the rules and the legislation,
each electric utility will use
the knowledge of their system,
which is always gonna be greater than ours.
The particulars of their system,
to determine the most efficient way to handle
their own individual load shed plans,
but to sort of help a Statewide coordinated approach.
We're gonna be issuing some broad guidance
on how they might prioritize between natural gas facilities.
That's based on stakeholder input that was filed
in the projects in front of the Railroad Commission
and the Public Utility Commission.
And I do want to emphasize that statutorily,
these utilities do have discretion
to develop their own plans.
And so our guidance is not gonna be mandatory.
And right now it's gonna be sort of broad and high level
with potentially future iterations of this guidance
being informed by insights that come from
the Supply Chain Map, insights that come from
the good work that's being done by TERC,
and also potentially review of emergency operation plans.
Which is another sort of potentially relevant activity
that's going on right now.
The Public Utility Commission has project 51841 open,
which is sort of streamlining the format and requirements
for emergency operation plans across
different types of electric entities.
And there are a number of features of this
that will be relevant to us,
such as each utility has to have a load shed annex,
that describes what their load shed plans are.
And it has to contain sort of critical load registries
of their different critical customers.
And so the ERCOT and the Commission,
will be required to review these for other purposes,
but the entirety of the ermerg operation plans,
but those annexes in particular could very well provide
useful insights for us in further developing the way
that we think about critical gas facilities,
and management of those facilities in emergency situations.
And I don't want to get too deep on this without ERCOT,
cause they know the details better than me,
but I know there's also been important work being done
in ERCOT involving NPR 1087.
And sort of the general issue that that's addressing is
our electric industry has a number of programs,
ancillary services in such where different sorts
of industrial resources can participate in programs
to for instance, receive compensation to turn off when
we're low on electricity.
But if it's a critical natural gas facility,
we wouldn't want it to turn off during an energy emergency.
And so, ERCOT's NPR is focusing on making sure
that critical entities aren't participating in programs
that would undermine the purpose of those programs
and undermine the purpose
of keeping critical entities online.
And I think that we might anticipate some market notices
with regard to the progression of that process
in the near future.
And I think that's most of what's going on right now.
I mean, moving forward, I know that,
I think Railroad Commission's rules,
I'll let you speak to that.
Whether or not you're anticipating a phase two.
I know that based on the various things that I talked about,
the map, the TERC, and all those things,
we may end up having a phase two
of our critical facilities rule mid-year.
And I know that we also have to incorporate other sorts
of critical entities into the way we think about
our emergency planning, such as critical water facilities,
and critical medical facilities.
And so we're gonna continue to work through that,
through probably second and third quarter of this year.
-: David, so the guidance document you spoke about,
do you know right now, how we're planning to disseminate
that or where the utilities can access that?
-: Yeah, we may incorporate other aspects to it,
but the primary place to go for this,
is we have the part on our website,
critical natural gas facilities,
is where we currently have a little description
of the requirements of the new rulemakings.
And we include, for instance, where the email addresses are,
where people are supposed
to spend their critical natural gas information.
That will be a location where we post this.
We'll probably also file it in some relevant dockets,
but we want it to be easy to get ahold of.
-: And then concerning emergency operation plan reviews.
That was an issue that came up a lot during session,
particularly in the house.
Do you know statutorily what the timeline is for us to have
to review emergency operation plans?
-: I do, well sort of working from now to the future.
I think that we hope to have our rule adopted
in early February.
I know that Barksdale English and the project team group
is working with getting a outside consultant
to help us review all those plans.
And I believe without being certain
that I think our review is due in September.
-: Okay.
Thanks.
-: And David, I think you recently published a directory
for the electric utility so that the critical gas facilities
will know where to send their information,
that's available on the website, correct?
-: Yes, sir.
That's also linked to the same wEPPage that I referred to,
and the way that you can,
if you're not familiar with our website,
if you go to the public utility Commissions website,
there are tabs on the top,
and one of those is a industry tab.
If you tag that tab under, there's a list of electric links
and one of those is critical natural gas facilities.
And so it should be hopefully intuitive to get to.
-: Thank you. -: Thank you.
-: He said everything I was gonna say, so.
Per HB, 3648, the deadline for us to adopt
and for y'all to adopt rules, were set at December 1st.
And we adopted our Critical Infrastructure Designation Rules
on November 30th.
And as David mentioned, through the rule making process,
and based on comments, we received,
we excluded low volume, natural gas producers
from our critical designation rules,
because of their minimal contribution to the gas supply,
they would not have had a much of an impact.
Then we created a category defining critical gas suppliers,
which would be required to file
their critical information forms and attachments to us.
And those include gas wells, oil wells,
that produce natural gas,
underground natural gas storage facilities,
to salt water disposal wells.
And as I mentioned they are sending information to us,
their critical customer information.
We created a subset of critical gas suppliers
because not all of them may need electricity to operate.
So those subset of suppliers facilities,
are defined as critical gas customers.
And they, in addition to sending
critical customer information to us,
would in turn, send information to their electric providers.
And that essentially assures that the electricity providers
have the most up-to-date information
about who they need to supply electricity to
in case of energy emergencies.
So this was all done through the rule-making process
and taking in all the different comments
that were submitted to us.
One thing that was mentioned, and certainly a large topic
during the rule-making process was language
in Senate Bill 3, that allowed facilities to apply
for an exception to our critical designation rules
and through the rules that we finally adopted,
we specified that certain types of facilities
cannot apply for exceptions.
And one of the examples, is directly tied
to this committee's work.
And that is if a facility ends up on the Supply Chain Map,
they will not be able to apply for an exception.
So, we put in these restrictions and review processes
that are gonna be key, in terms of ensuring
that natural gas supply flows during energy emergencies.
-: Yeah. And I think that's an important point to make
because the media and there was a lot of talk about
the ability to opt out.
And so I think you all addressing that was critical
to the success of all of this,
definitely a salient point that needs to be made.
The only other thing I would say is,
it's maybe somewhat out of the purview of this committee,
but your point David on looking at water,
as critical as well.
We heard in a lot of the testimony during the session,
and before this Commission from folks who lost water,
who had water issues that were as impactful
as the loss of electricity.
So I think that that will definitely be something
very important going forward
to be able to identify the water infrastructure
that needs to be deemed critical as well.
All right, thanks y'all.
-: Thank you.
David: Thanks. RJ: Thank you.
-: Next on the agenda is communications,
and I'll ask Sean Hazard to come up.
Sean is the PUC main resource
at the State Operations Center.
The focus for us on this committee thus far
in communications has really been around
not external communications, as much as communications
in an emergency between the agencies,
between the agencies and industry,
between the industries themselves.
For the PUC, Sean is our person
at the State Operation Center,
that's coordinating and facilitating all that.
So, he's gonna give the presentation
on communications this morning.
-: So thank you Thomas, Wei.
We're continuing to work with our
Emergency Council Member Partners to identify ways
to improve communications during the activation
of the State Operation Center, on an operational level,
as you mentioned.
There's two parts to this.
First, we want to make sure that our partner agencies
like TCQ, TXDOT, Railroad, DPS, and TDEM,
we know what information is gonna be helpful for them.
And then conversely taking that knowledge
and going to the energy industry and making sure
that they're prepared to provide that information
when the need arises.
We've developed two new communications channels.
These have been created to expedite communication
between regulators and the energy industry
during the activation of the State Operation Center.
These channels allow us to initiate calls
and virtual meetings, virtually instantly
during an emergency.
The Texas Energy Reliability Committee,
also has a subgroup working on recommendations
to improve communications during disasters
and other emergency events.
Finally, the Power Outage Alert Rulemaking is proceeding,
and we're working through the comments now.
This rule will ultimately provide a guide
for when alerts will be issued.
However, it is worth noting that the technology
to send an alert is already in place.
So an alert can be sent immediately if needed,
and this is not dependent
on the completion of the rulemaking.
-: How many years have you been going to the SOC,
would you say?
Roughly.
-: Seven.
-: Have you seen a change operationally down there
that you could speak to from pre-storm and how,
agencies interacted in the communication channels
and kind of where we are even today as we strive
to continually do better,
but just kind of the change even since maybe
the February 2021 Uri activation,
and how that may have improved?
-: Sure.
The best way I can describe it, is stability.
The faces are familiar.
There has not been a lot of turnover among those folks
that do respond to the State Operations Center.
And it feels like every single activation that we have,
we're learning something new,
and documenting it with those folks that we're working with.
The way we're configured at the State Operation Center
is based on what is called, Emergency Support Functions.
ESF 12 is energy, and the folks that support that ESF,
TCQ, Railroad Commission, TXDOT, and a number of others,
we all sit within six feet of each other
in the State Operation Center.
So communication is very fluid,
but having the same folks responding
for the last couple of years,
those relationships have grown,
and communication has definitely gotten better.
-: Now, the proximity you talked about all sitting together,
is that new, or is that always how it's been?
-: That's how it's been,
since I've been responding to the SOC.
-: Okay, perfect.
-: And my understanding is that
we're now on the same response team
and the two agencies has been assigned to two or three,
so together with other agencies.
Now just PUC, NRC I think with TXDOT, and TDEM,
and other agency TCEQ.
We're now literally sitting shoulders to shoulders
together on the same team.
Sean: That's correct.
-: And y'all can turn around and talk to each other,
and know who they are, whom to talk to.
Sean: That's correct.
-: Great, great.
-: Perfect. Do you need anything from us?
-: I think we're good for now.
-: Perfect. Thank you, Sean.
-: Thank you. Sean: Thank you.
-: And the last project team we developed
was for our database.
Obviously everything for the map needs to be put
into a database, which statutorily has to be updated,
I believe annually.
So Gina Smith, who leads that team,
I've asked to just kind of give a brief update
on where we are kind of from the IT database perspective.
Good morning, Gina. Gina: Good morning, Thomas.
Gina: Good morning, Wei. -: Good morning.
-: Mine's gonna be short, and to support
what David Smelser said, just a second ago,
in accordance with project 52345,
subsection 25.52, H1B.
The database team has established a wEPPage
with the market directory of utility emails
of the transmission and distribution service providers,
AKA utilities to be used for the provision of the new rule.
Instructions are also provided on the site,
asking electric utilities to file updates
to their contact information through the PUC interchange
under project 52964.
Also the PUC will be providing a mechanism for utilities
to upload updated mapping information on an ongoing
and an ad needed basis.
The utilities uploading this information could be
anyone of the electric companies listed on our new wEPPage.
The best option recommended by the database team
is One Drive, it'll serve this purpose.
The Mapping team will retrieve and then offload the files
onto a secure drive that is used to store
their current mapping files.
In the future, a SharePoint site could be set up
for the utilities to upload their information to,
to make it easier for them to get that information over
to our Mapping Team.
And that was all I had.
-: Thanks Gina. And in updating the database,
I know what we've talked about in previous meetings,
is while it only has to be done once a year,
we'll have kind of an ongoing update,
but at minimum, I think it makes sense to update it
before the winter, you know, sometime in December,
but then we've also discussed is updating it
right before hurricane season.
So by June 1st as well, because a lot of our focus
has been on winter weather events and things of that nature.
But obviously hurricane season in Texas is a big deal,
and this, I think will be, the map and everything
that goes along with it will be a really useful tool
to the folks down at the State Operations Center,
going into hurricane season as well.
-: Excellent.
-: And I'll ask what Thomas asked other presenters earlier,
is there anything you need from us, or anything we can do,
in terms of data or technology?
-: Technology, right now, the database team
is more of a supportive role.
We are here to support any of the needs of other teams
as far as technology.
As soon as
there are ways to share information from Railroad,
once they get their critical gas providers information
uploaded onto your database. -: One Drive.
Once that goes into your database,
we'll have to figure out how the PUC can use that data,
once we get access to it, and how we'll get access to it,
whether it be through reporting.
And so that'll be in the future,
how we can use that information to benefit the PUC
and how we can use that.
-: Okay.
-: Thanks Gina.
Gina: Thank you. -: Thank you.
-: Appreciate it.
So that concludes the project team update portion of this.
The next item on the agenda is really setting out goals
for Q1 of 2022.
Wei, I just kind of listed, shorthand three goals
that I have.
I think the first and foremost is making sure
we meet the mark on getting a first run map out,
sometime in April.
I think that's critically important to the success of this.
Second, is looking at potentially other state agencies
or local officials that may need to get involved.
We heard a lot from companies, I think both
on the electric side and the gas side
that roads were a big issue during Uri.
So, I think it would be helpful to get TXDOT,
and maybe some of the folks that are involved
in county roads, like we have discussed,
involved at this committee, so that we can close the loop
and address issues of,
impassable roads during a winter weather events.
And so we have more complete information.
And then finally, it's kind of a pivot
on the communication side.
And like I said, Sean, a lot of the focus has been
on communications within the State Operation Center
and agency to agency, industry to industry.
But I think one of the themes we heard during session,
and PUC and ERCOT heard, was that one of the major failings
during the event was external communications
to the legislature, to the public.
And so I think in Q1, we're really gonna need to focus on,
along with the outage alert system,
how we communicate with the public and elected leadership,
both Statewide and local officials,
to make sure that everyone is getting all the information
they need to do what their jobs are.
-: I think that's a good idea for us to come up with
a comprehensive communication plan,
not just among the agency, but also external audience,
whether it's stakeholders and the general public.
And I think that's a major step we can take in Q1.
And also, I agree with you on the involvement
with other agency.
You know, I had some conversation with TXDOT
about road conditions already,
and we have sent out a request for information or survey
to the natural gas industry and asked them for information
where they experienced problem before.
And I think we, the agency, the RC,
provided a version of the layer to TXDOT sometime ago,
four or five years ago.
I think that could be updated,
and then completely agree with you.
I think that road condition,
if we can take proactive measure,
and making sure not just at state level, but locally,
so that if, we need to get to a facility
the road condition is pretreated,
and then people can drive on the road safely.
Not just for natural gas or electricity,
it's for everybody driving on the roads.
-: Perfect.
So, as far as future meetings, which is next on the agenda,
not so much on dates, but I think,
even though it's not required by law,
doing kind of a public meeting,
particularly when there are big events
that happen on this committee,
is probably a good thing so that everyone involved,
knows, we shed some light on all the work that's being done.
So I think what I would request of you,
and any other members of the committee,
is that at our next meeting in February,
we discuss the proper time,
potentially maybe after our first map is out,
to have another one of these publicly
so that we can give everyone an idea of what's gone on.
-: Yup.
-: Great. Thomas: Perfect.
-: Sounds good.
-: All right.
Well, just in closing, I would say thank you
to the staffs of all the agencies that have participated,
a lot of work has been done since Senate Bill 3,
was passed and signed that created this committee.
Thank you, to you, for your leadership on this committee.
I think we have a tremendous working relationship
at the staff level, and it's one that I think
is necessary and really critical to the success
of the gas and electric coordination.
And then to the market participants, oil and gas,
electricity, TDU's generators, for all of the help
you've provided to us in getting all the information
that we need to be able to complete our mandate.
So with that, we will conclude our public meeting.
And thanks everybody.
This meeting is adjourned.
(gavel bangs) -: Thank you.