AUSTIN, Texas – The recent blackouts that left 4 million Texas customers without electricity and heat during a deadly winter freeze also unplugged plants that could have generated more power, which was urgently needed as the state's grid reached the breaking point, the head of a major energy corporation said Thursday.
Curtis Morgan, the CEO of Vistra Corp., told lawmakers at the outset of a public hearing on one of the worst blackouts in U.S.
history that when officials from his company called utility providers, they were told they weren't a priority. “How can a power plant be at the bottom of the list of priorities?” Morgan said. “You-know-what hit the fan, and everybody’s going, ‘You’re turning off my power plant?'" he said.