AUSTIN — Texas’ electric grid operator urged the public to conserve energy Monday as excessive heat could lead to an energy crisis.
At 9:00 p.m., the Electric Reliability Board of Texas issued a watch indicating it anticipated a shortage of energy reserves on Monday “with no market solution available,” according to an active operations announcement posted on ERCOT’s website. ERCOT also calls for voluntary energy conservation.
ERCOT stopped short of indicating that power could be out and said “no system-wide outages are expected,” according to a news release.
The watch is a notice that precedes an “energy emergency alert,” which is a more serious warning indicating that ERCOT may order a shutdown or curtailment of operations at major power users, such as manufacturing facilities or large stores. These signals range from calls for conservation to constant power outages.
A 9:30 p.m. forecast showed Texas could break its all-time electricity demand record on Monday with 80 gigawatts of use forecast for the afternoon. That’s above what ERCOT predicted peak summer demand would reach in a seasonal readiness report.
The busiest hour will be between 2:00 and 3:00 p.m., during which ERCOT predicts wind power will only produce about 8 percent of its capacity. At that time, solar will be producing at 81% capacity, but will represent a much smaller share of total Texas power generation.
Dispatch Power, which consists primarily of natural gas-fired power plants, will be relied upon to generate most of the electricity during these peak demand hours.
The warning comes as temperatures in Dallas are expected to reach and possibly reach 105 degrees on Monday. The National Weather Service has issued an excessive heat warning for the entire Dallas-Fort Worth area, which covers a large portion of the state. Isolated high temperatures could reach 112 degrees, the weather service said.
The heat wave is leading to increased electricity use and could lead to tight power conditions throughout the week.
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