AUSTIN – As extreme hot weather continues driving record power demand across Texas, the Electric Reliability Council of Texas (ERCOT) is issuing a Conservation Appeal for Wednesday, July 13 between 2-8 p.m. ERCOT is asking Texans and businesses to voluntarily conserve electricity during this time. Currently, no system-wide outages are expected.
Today’s conditions are expected to be similar to those experienced on Monday, July 11, 2022. On that day, Texans and businesses responded by voluntarily conserving electricity and helping ERCOT successfully meet record power demand by reducing their energy use by 500 MWs.
Conservation is a reliability tool ERCOT has deployed more than four dozen times since 2008 to successfully manage grid operations. This notification is issued when projected reserves may fall below 2300 MW for 30 minutes or more.
|
|
Installed Capacity |
Wednesday (7/13) Tightest Hour (3-4 p.m.) |
Percentage of Installed Capacity Available at Tightest Hour |
|
Dispatchable |
80,083 |
67,076 |
84% |
|
Wind |
35,162 |
4,294 |
12% |
|
Solar |
11,787 |
7,987 |
68% |
Note: Total forecasted demand is 78,451 MW.
How to track electricity demand
- View daily peak demand forecast, current load, and available generation at http://www.ercot.com.
- Follow ERCOT on Twitter (@ERCOT_ISO) and Facebook (Electric Reliability Council of Texas).
- Sign up for the ERCOT mobile app (available for download at the Apple App Store and Google Play).
- Subscribe to the EmergencyAlerts list at EmergencyAlerts.
Consumer assistance
Public Utility Commission of Texas Hotline – 1-888-782-8477
ERCOT encourages all electric customers to visit the Public Utility Commission’s (PUC) Power to Save or their electric provider’s websites to get important conservation tips. According to the PUC, ways to reduce electricity use during peak times include turning up your thermostat a degree or two, if comfortable, and postponing running major appliances or pool pumps during the requested timeframe.
ERCOT continues to use all tools available to manage the grid effectively and reliably, including using reserve power and calling upon large electric customers who have volunteered to lower their energy use.
ERCOT emphasizes that the call for conservation is limited to the hours of 2-8 p.m. on Wednesday, July 13.
Factors driving the need for this important action by customers:
- Record high electric demand. The heat wave that has settled on Texas and much of the central United States is driving increased electric use. Other grid operators are operating under similar conservative operations programs as ERCOT due to the heatwave.
- Low wind. Wind generation is currently generating less than what is historically generated in this time period.
- Forced thermal outages. The number of forced outages in thermal generation exceeds ERCOT forecasts.
- Solar. Developing cloud cover in West Texas has reduced the amount of solar generation.
Subscribe to the LIVE! Daily
Required
Comments
With all the assurances given by ERCOT since the February freeze of 2021, that the grid is improved, reliable, and not susceptible to failure, the article above indicates to me that they're blowing smoke up our butts.
- Log in or register to post comments
PermalinkPost a comment to this article here: