Staff Report
The Electric Reliability Council of Texas (ERCOT) is asking residents to conserve electricity through June 18 as grid conditions tighten. There has been a number of forced generation outages along with potential record electric use for the month of June.
The peak load forecast for June 14 may exceed 73,000 megawatts (MW) across Texas.The peak demand record for June is 69,123 MW set on June 27, 2018 between 4 and 5 p.m. It takes one MW to power about 200 homes on a summer day, according to ERCOT.
Forced outages are already taking place and about 11,000 MW of generation is on forces outage for repairs. Of that, 8,000 MW is thermal and the rest is intermittent resources. The typical outages of thermal generation on a summer day is around 3,600 MW.
“We will be conducting a thorough analysis with generation owners to determine why so many units are out of service,” said ERCOT Vice President of Grid Planning and Operations Woody Rickerson. “This is unusual for this early in the summer season.”
Generator owners have said that outages should decrease throughout the week.
Additionally, wind output is expected to be lower than what is typically available for peak conditions; it will be between 3,500 to 6,000 MW between 3 p.m. and 9 p.m. Wind output is expected to increase as the week goes on.
ERCOT has made some suggestion to help reduce electric use:
- Set the thermostat to 78 degrees or higher – every degree of cooling increases energy use by six to eight percent.
Turn off lights and pool pumps and avoid using large appliances like ovens, washing machines and dryers.
Unplug and turn off items that are not needed, if possible.
