Post: ERCOT urges consumers to conserve energy amid extreme temperatures

ERCOT urges consumers to conserve energy amid extreme temperatures

With a heat wave across Texas driving record high power demand, ERCOT has asked Texans to conserve energy on Monday July 11.

In a news release, issued on July 10, ERCOT said total forecasted power demand is expected to surpass 79GW on Monday — which would set another record. It is urging people and businesses to voluntarily conserve electricity between 2 p.m. – 8 p.m. and to watch for “a projected reserve capacity shortage.” But it said no system-wide outages are expected.

Under current projected scenarios, performance of the generation fleet Monday July 11 is:

Source: ERCOT

According to ERCOT, these two factors are driving the need for conservation among 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. While solar power is generally reaching near full generation capacity, wind generation is currently generating significantly less than what it historically generated in this time period. Current projections show wind generation coming in less than 10 percent of its capacity.

Under current projected scenarios, the tightest hour of energy use is estimated to be at 2 p.m. to 3 p.m.

Wayne Muncaster, SVP for North America at GridBeyond, said: