Hall files grid resiliency bill
Dec. 26—Sen. Bob Hall recently filed Senate Bill 330 to address the resiliency and reliability of the Texas electric grid.
During each session he has been in office, Hall has advocated for strengthening the resiliency of the grid and implementing measures to harden the grid against both natural and man-made threats.
As seen during Winter Storm Uri, the grid is vulnerable. The natural threat of the winter storm took the lives of over 200 people, had a direct/indirect economic impact of over $130 billion, and brought the state to within four minutes of a statewide grid failure, which would have meant weeks or even months without electricity.
In addition to the natural threats of severe weather, earthquakes, hurricanes, and geomagnetic disturbances (GMD), there are also threats from cyber-attacks, terrorist attacks, and electromagnetic pulses (EMP), stated a news release from Hall's office.
"Electricity is the second most important thing to sustaining life in our modern society, behind only air. While some may say water is the second most important for human life, without electricity, our water supply would not work for most people," Hall said. "It is time that Texas take a serious look at these vulnerabilities and take steps to protect Texans from another widespread outage."
"The bill we filed ... will create the Texas Electric Grid Security Commission, which will be charged with evaluating the vulnerabilities to the grid and critical infrastructure and developing standards that will mitigate these threats," Hall continued. "This bill has wide bipartisan support, with 14 senators signing on as co-authors."
The standards the commission implements will address the risks of both natural and man-made threats to our grid and critical infrastructure.
"We must harden our infrastructure to ensure that we are protected against another widespread grid failure and that, in the inevitable event of another storm like Uri, our communities must not lose access to basic living necessities, safe drinking water, financial institutions, food, and transportation, and can return to normalcy as quickly as possible," said Hall.
