By Kanishka Singh
(Reuters) -Brad Jones has been elected interim president and chief executive officer of the Texas grid operator ERCOT, its board said on Tuesday, filling the gap left by the previous CEO who was ousted in the wake of a deadly blackout in February.
Jones was elected to serve until the position has been permanently filled, up to a term of one year, effective May 4, the Electric Reliability Council of Texas board said in an emailed statement.
Jones served as ERCOT vice president of commercial operations from April 2013 to December 2014 and as senior vice president and chief operating officer from January 2015 to October 2015, the statement said.
Jones has also previously served as president and CEO of the New York Independent System Operator from October 2015 to October 2018.
ERCOT ousted Bill Magness as CEO in March after a February winter storm caused widespread blackouts across Texas, a state unaccustomed to extreme cold, leaving residents without heat, power or water for days.
ERCOT and the Public Utility Commission of Texas, the regulator which oversees the grid operator, raised power prices to about 400 times the normal rate over five days.
Potomac Economics, which monitors the state’s power market, said in March that ERCOT kept market prices too high for more than a day after widespread outages ended.
At least 111 Texans died as a result of the disaster, according to numbers released in March by the Department of State Health Services.
(Reporting by Kanishka Singh in BengaluruEditing by Sonya Hepinstall)
