After the near-collapse of the state’s power grid, seven board members of the Electric Reliability Council of Texas have resigned. Credit: Miguel Gutierrez Jr./The Texas TribuneAnother Electric Reliability Council of Texas board member has resigned after a winter storm caused the near-collapse of the state’s power grid. Clifton Karnei, executive vice president of Brazos Electric Power Cooperative, is the seventh board member of the state’s power grid operator to quit this week. RELATED: Political contributions link ERCOT board to Abbott and the state committee now investigating the troubled entityUnlike Karnei, the other board members who resigned this week reside outside of Texas. “The PUC was non-existent.”The other board members who resigned this week did so at an ERCOT board meeting on Wednesday.

Millions went without power in Texas for days last week, and on Wednesday the grid operator’s board acknowledged Texans’ suffering. The most significant source of power loss during the crisis came from natural gas power plants that couldn’t generate power — whether from fuel supply shortages or freezing components at the plants. AdHowever, board members also commended ERCOT grid operators for making the difficult decision to order the outages, which averted an uncontrolled system collapse. Six ERCOT board members’ resignations became effective at the end of the meeting. ERCOT confirmed on Wednesday that Randal Miller, who represented independent retail power providers, also resigned his position on the board.

Sally Talberg, board chair; Peter Cramton, vice chair; Terry Bulger, finance and audit chair; and Raymond Hepper, human resources and governance committee chair, will resign at the end of the ERCOT board meeting Wednesday morning, according to the notice. ERCOT board members had come under fire last week when it was reported that four of the board members did not reside in the state. ERCOT officials, during a press conference last week, said it had removed personal information about the directors from its website because the board members were experiencing harassment. He has advised numerous governments and has been on the ERCOT board since 2015. Fifteen directors serve on the ERCOT board, including four unaffiliated directors.

ERCOT President & CEO Bill Magness briefly addressed the winter weather at the start of his report before quickly moving on. We’ll probably see our winter peak later this week or in the very early part of next week. “I feel like I have a virtual gavel.”Last week’s board meeting included the elections of a new ERCOT chair and vice-chair. ERCOT is scheduled to be the focus of an emergency hearing before the Texas Legislature next week. AdMagness said the bios were in the process of being put back online after he and other ERCOT officials determined it was public information.