Last week regulators said the grid was prepared to meet demand during the coming freeze.
Last week ERCOT said Texas’s grid is prepared to meet demand during the coming freeze.
Matthew Busch/BloombergThe Texas power grid’s governing body has predicted that the state’s energy demand will exceed previously forecasted levels this week, as a blast of Arctic cold sweeps into the state, according to Bloomberg News.
The Electric Reliability Council of Texas, (ERCOT) which runs the state’s grid, predicted that demand will hit 69.3 gigawatts Friday morning as the cold front sweeps into the Lone Star State. Last month, ERCOT predicted that demand would top out at 67.4 gigawatts over the winter, Bloomberg reported.
Bloomberg’s report comes after ERCOT said on Friday that it expects the grid and the state’s energy supplier to meet demand as temperatures plummet across the state later this week.
ERCOT published a report last month showing that Texas’ energy grid is still not ready to withstand a severe winter storm scenario, even after the slew of upgrades and new regulations that followed 2021’s deadly Winter Storm Uri. The report concluded that an extreme winter storm combined with power plant outages and inadequate solar and wind energy production would force Texans to endure rolling blackouts.
“It is critically important to address the fact that … under the most extreme conditions, there could be not enough power,” president and CEO of ERCOT Pablo Vegas told the Texas Tribune’s Erin Douglas in November. “That’s why change is needed in the market design in order to address that.”
After making it through a cold and rainy Monday, Houstonians can ready their homes, pets and friends and family for the cold by checking out Chron’s guide for cold weather prep in Texas. You can also keep an eye on current energy grid and market conditions using ERCOT’s online dashboard.
Read More:TX energy demand to exceed predicted winter peak
2022-12-19 23:50:08
