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Posted 3 years ago | 3 minute read

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ERCOT takes emergency actions to avoid blackouts amid heatwave

Texas’s power grid operator, ERCOT, has once again issued conservation alerts to avoid rolling blackouts as soaring electricity demand threatened to outpace available supplies amid a stifling heatwave.

On Wednesday 13 July, the grid operator went further and deployed a series of emergency measures noting that temperatures above 100 degrees Fahrenheit (38 degrees Celsius), combined with record demand and forced thermal outages were the key contributors.

The first measure deployed was a Conservation Appeal at 11.36am, covering July 13 between 2-8 p.m. This notification is issued when projected reserves may fall below 2300 MW for 30 minutes or more. The state had projected Wednesday’s peak demand to hit 78,762MW. According to the notice, conditions were expected to be similar to those experienced on July 11, when Texans and businesses responded by voluntarily conserving electricity and helping ERCOT successfully meet record power demand by reducing their energy use by 500 MWs.

However, at 11:39, ERCOT issued a watch for a projected reserve capacity shortage noting that “no market solution available” for Wednesday, July 13, 2022 14:00 – 21:00, which causes a risk for an Energy Emergency Alert (EEA) event. During an Energy Emergency Event controlled outages are possible should available supply not be sufficient to meet the demand and to prevent any uncontrolled system-wide outage.

By midday ERCOT took further actions to ensure stable supplies:

The actions came after ERCOT began paying utilities an average of $5,000/MWh to keep generators running. That price is the highest the grid operator pays. During the period, prices hit the $4,500/MWh maximum price cap.

Source: ERCOT

For 14 July ERCOT is expecting peak demand around 77GW and capacity equivalent around 79GW, triggering another event and impacting prices.

Source: ERCOT

GridBeyond SVP North America Wayne Muncaster said:

“This is the third time this year that ERCOT has called on Texans to cut power usage and the second time it has warned of the potential for rolling blackouts. With temperatures expected to remain above 97 F into the weekend, we are not out of the woods yet and could see further conservation alerts and actions from the grid operator to prevent outages. Today also looks challenging with peak demand expected to be around 77GW and capacity equivalent around 79GW, triggering another event and forcing day-ahead, real-time prices higher.

“While most hours in the Texas energy markets are unremarkable; low commodity prices, stable grid, plenty of generation in reserve and the Emergency Response Scheme (ERS) as a further back-up, under certain circumstances prices can spike, creating opportunities for organizations that can predict and react quickly to market volatility.

“If you’re on an Index or Block and Index contract in Texas, speak to us about how best to manage your position this summer. The combination of our ERCOT price forecasting and automated dispatch allows our clients to see the problem hours in advance and/or react in real-time – allowing them to secure revenue and summer-proof their operations.”

Let GridBeyond’s AI platform do all the hard work to help you improve your energy spend and increase margins.

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