AUSTIN, Texas — Editor's note: The video published above is a KVUE report when it was announced Bill Magness was to be terminated as CEO of ERCOT.
A former CEO of the Electric Reliability Council of Texas (ERCOT) is rejoining the agency's board, according to its website.
Bob Kahn, 68, told the Austin American-Statesman that his goal is to ask questions about the statewide power outages caused by the winter storms in February, and he's not out to place blame on anyone.
"I think we need to gather as many facts as we can to figure out what happened; my goal is not to place blame on anyone," Kahn told the Statesman. "My goal is to find out what plants ran, what didn't run, and why they didn't run."
According to the Statesman, Kahn's position on the board is unpaid and will replace Austin Energy General Manager Jackie Sargent – who resigned on Feb. 27 – on the ERCOT board as a representative of municipal utilities.
Kahn's comments to the Statesman also comes after it was announced that Bill Magness would be terminated from his CEO position by the agency. Magness has 60 days left as CEO of ERCOT after the board of directors met in a closed session on March 3 and gave him a 60 days' termination notice, according to an emailed statement from ERCOT. On March 4, ERCOT confirmed Magness told the board of directors that he will not seek or accept severance pay.
Kahn, who lives in Austin with his wife, told the Statesman they were among the millions of Texans without power, saying they were without power for 58 hours. He also told the Statesman that "winterization of power plants" was not brought up as an issue when he was CEO, a topic that has pushed itself to the forefront of the legislative session. In February, Abbott declared ERCOT reform an emergency item and said that he was adding more emergency items, including a mandate of the winterization of power and more funding.
Kahn was the ERCOT chief executive officer from 2007 to 2009 and previously served on the ERCOT board from 2002 to 2006. Magness joined ERCOT in 2010 and took over as the agency's CEO in January 2016, according to his company bio.
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