The site description of ERCOT says: "The Electric Reliability Council of Texas operates the electric grid and manages the deregulated market for 75 percent of the state."
Note that "deregulated".
And now: "A 2011 cold snap led ERCOT to impose new “winterization” regulations to forestall power plant failures, but that those efforts seem to have been insufficient, he said."
Of course they're going to be insufficient if you pride yourself on deregulation…
… to be fair, state owned everything is not a panacea either (take it from a Soviet-born Russian). Ideology is not a substitute for complexity management. Yes, we need markets. And yes, they do need to be heavily regulated.