Currently, even though it pains me to say this, ERCOT has one of the most mature battery systems in the world.

Everything else is valid though.

As a fifth-generation former Texan, I understand "separatist mentality." ERCOT's buy/sell market is perhaps also the most purely capitalistic marketplace in existance (and among least-regulated, in first-world); for these reasons, winter-proofing funding is terrible and outages likely when the system is stressed (e.g. approximately every decade Texas loses power during winter storms) — which is also when generating profits are maximized (orders of magnitude increases).

Certain deregulated-market Texans are still paying off powerbills from years-old storms, a few cold days of billing often exceeding the rest of the year's usage.

plus it seems ERCOT has learned and the grid seems fine now

Time tells all.

One benefit of the previous Texas winter disaster is that the highest MWH fee was reduced from $9000/per to $3k/p [normal would be ~$30/p].

In my personal opinion the winterization of LNG lines is still not enough for the next major storm (the cause of previous two decade storms was lack of adequate heat-tracing along pipelines — not windmills [Hotwheels' deception]). This has been discussed in every post-disaster report, since the 1980s. Private grid operators see little incentive to prepare for these storms, particularly since they make so much money when the grid is stressed (just how it's set up).

Instead of the stupidity of isolation, Texas could easily amalgamate its resources with the entire rest of Lower 48 USA, and not have to spend nearly as much prepping for emergency gas lines (instead: buy power from somewhere else).

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