Heatwave Pushes Texas Grid Operator to the Limit Prompting Emergency Conservation Measures

The Public Utility Commission of Texas issued a news release on August 13 urging Texans to conserve electricity as record demand met temperatures in the triple digits. The Electric Reliability Council of Texas Inc. saw its operating reserves dip below their 2.3 gigawatt threshold and push power prices to the market cap of $9,000/MWh.

High temperatures in part of the state drove up the use of air conditioners, forcing the grid operator to issue a level 1 energy emergency alert in the afternoon as demand approached Monday’s record of 74.5 gigawatts. Last issued in 2014, the energy emergency alert enables the grid operator to utilize resources that are only available during scarcity conditions. These include demand response, additional generation or imports from neighboring regions, voluntary calls for conservation, or resources that are usually set aside as operating reserves.

Already in May, ERCOT released its seasonal assessment report for the upcoming summer, which forecasted a peak demand of about 74,850 megawatts, 1,300 megawatts higher than the all-time record set last July. The grid operator identified a potential need for an energy emergency alert status, in order to maintain system reliability. In June, the North American Electric Reliability Corporation’s 2019 Summer Reliability Assessment warned that ERCOT might not have enough resources available to meet this summer’s projected peak electricity demand.