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The Electric Reliability Council of Texas (ERCOT) is extending a warning for the rest of the week that unusually high temperatures will likely lead to an increased demand on the grid.
While the organization did not request that residents reduce energy use, the warning pauses any maintenance on power plants to ensure power remains consistent. Texans have become familiar with uncertainty surrounding their lights turning on, and Energy Alliance Policy Director Bill Peacock notes this was completely preventable.
"Texas' refusal to deal with renewable energy subsidies continues to harm reliability on the Texas grid, and cost Texans billions of dollars," Peacock said in a statement. "More than $66 billion has been invested in renewable energy in Texas over the last 20 years. If not for generators chasing the more than $22 billion of renewable subsidies, that money could have been invested in reliable generation that would have largely addressed the problem Texas is facing this weekend."
ERCOT is anticipating extreme hot weather in the region Friday, May 6 through Monday, May 9 and may experience larger than normal demand for power, according to Austin Journal. ERCOT will deploy all the tools available to us to manage the grid reliably. ERCOT is coordinating closely with the Public Utility Commission, generation resource owners and transmission utilities to ensure they are prepared for the extreme heat. ERCOT has asked power plants across the region to postpone planned outages and to return from outages already in progress in order to serve Texans this weekend. At this time, ERCOT projects there will be sufficient generation to meet this high demand for electricity.
According to the Houston Chronicle, the emergency warning has been extended by ERCOT to cover not just the weekend, but the following week as well.
Fox 7 Austin reports that Texas is expected to have incredibly hot temperatures this weekend, leading National Weather Service meteorologist Kent Prochazka to tell KTBC that Texas could see new high temperature records set. This has raised concerns over grid instability, particularly following an ERCOT release. Stoic Energy president Doug Lewin told the KTBC that "everyone [is] on notice." "We’re going to need every megawatt hour we can get," Lewin said, KTBC reported.
"If we see triple digits drag into Monday, we’ll probably be pretty close to the edge to whether we have enough [power] supply for demand," Lewin said, according to Fox 7. "It’s this time of year when we’re clear of winter storms, and we think we’re clear of really severe heat waves, that we take off the power plants for planned maintenance. No one wants those plants off for maintenance in the middle of July."
The Austin Journal noted that Texans can try to lower their energy bills by letting their thermostats run a bit higher during the afternoon and early evening and unplugging any appliances or electronics that are not in use.