With Texas power grid strained again, ERCOT asks residents to reduce electricity use
Texas officials are asking residents to reduce electric use “as much as possible” this week because of significant strain on the state’s power grid.
The Electric Reliability Council of Texas, or ERCOT, made the request because of “significant forced generation outages combined with potential record electric use” in June, according to an ERCOT release.
“We are deeply concerned about the issues associated with all of these plants that are offline at this time,” Warren Lasher, ERCOT’s senior director of System Planning, told reporters Monday. “We will be doing a thorough investigation to understand what the issues are and to assess what the implications are for the grid.”
A spokesperson for ERCOT said Monday that as of 2:30 p.m., there were 12,178 megawatts of generation out in the state, about 900 of which was for planned outages. Of that, 9,066 megawatts were thermal outages, such as coal and gas, and the rest was from renewable resources, spokesperson Leslie Sopko said.
According to the summer Seasonal Assessment of Resource Adequacy, a typical range of thermal generation outages on hot summer days is around 3,600 megawatts. One megawatt typically powers around 200 homes on a summer day.
“All of these thermal units are offline due to mechanical failure or the need for repairs,” Sopko said, comparing the situation to having a flat tire. “Something breaks, you have to take it out of service to fix it.”
ERCOT representatives on the call did not provide a detailed breakdown of what specific power plants are offline.
The number of outages should decrease throughout the week, according to the power companies via ERCOT.
ERCOT’s Monday call for electricity conservation follows the February winter storm, where outages that were meant to be rolling lasted days for thousands. Asked if there’s an expectation of rolling blackouts, Lasher said that it seemed unlikely as of Monday afternoon.
“At this time today, it appears unlikely that we will have to enter an energy emergency alert,” Lasher said. “Rotating outages or controlled outages ... would occur in the last stage of an emergency alert.”
Lasher said he didn’t have information on whether the generator outages are due to repairs because of the winter storm.
“There may be conditions on some of those plants stemming from the extreme weather that we had earlier in the year, but it’s not clear at this time,” he said.
Spoko said that as of 2:30 p.m., wind was producing 3,395 megawatts and solar 5,370 megawatts.
“The wind is outputting lower than we would expect on average for a peak summer-type day and the solar is below what we would expect on average... but the variability in those numbers is somewhat large and is well known,” Lasher said. “What is dramatically inconsistent with historical performance is the forced outages in thermal.”
Monday’s peak load forecast could exceed 73,000 megawatts, which would be a June record, ERCOT said in its Monday news release. The high June peak was 69,123 megawatts set on June 27, 2018, between 4 p.m. and 5 p.m.
ERCOT is asking Texas residents to do the following:
- Set your thermostat to 78 degrees or higher — every degree of cooling increases your energy use by 6% to 8%.
- Turn off lights and pool pumps and avoid using large appliances like ovens, washing machines and dryers.
- If you don’t need something — we are asking you to turn it off and unplug it if possible.
This story was originally published June 14, 2021 at 1:50 PM.
