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The
Electric Reliability Council of Texas (ERCOT), which operates
the grid for more than 26 million customers, called for
voluntary conservation and asked state regulators to be allowed
to exceed air quality standards.
ERCOT faces "a high potential to enter emergency operations this
evening" due to low wind generation and high power demand, the
grid operator said. Its website showed the potential for
available capacity to fall short of demand by 95 megawatts at
7:55 p.m. local time.
Texas residents have worried about extreme weather since a
deadly winter storm in February 2021 left millions without
power, water and heat for days as ERCOT fought to prevent a grid
collapse.
AccuWeather forecast temperatures in Houston, the biggest city
in Texas, would reach 107 degrees Fahrenheit (41.7 degrees
Celsius) on Thursday. That compares with a normal high of 94 F
(34 C) for this time of year.
ERCOT forecast demand would reach 84,928 megawatts (MW) on
Thursday, just shy of its 85,435 MW record set Aug. 10.
Unlike other U.S. grids, which can import thousands of megawatts
from neighboring regions, ERCOT is heavily dependent on its own
generation since its transmission system has few
interconnections with neighboring systems.
Next-day prices at the ERCOT North Hub, which includes Dallas,
soared to $925 per megawatt hour for Thursday from $255 for
Wednesday. That compares with an average of $75 so far this
year, $78 in 2022 and a five-year (2018-2022) average of $66.
MISO LOOKING FOR POWER
The Midcontinent Independent System Operator (MISO), which
oversees the grid serving 45 million people in 15 states from
Minnesota to Louisiana, also projected it might not have enough
resources to meet forecast demand on Thursday.
"Due to the extreme heat creating near-record electricity demand
and unplanned generation outages over the last 12 hours, MISO
has declared (an energy emergency alert)," MISO spokesman
Brandon Morris said in an email.
Morris said MISO is working with utilities and neighboring grids
to "have every available resource available throughout the day."
MISO projected power use would reach 127,195 MW on Thursday,
topping the system's all-time high of 127,100 MW in July 2011.
(Reporting by Scott DiSavino and Arathy Somasekhar; additional
reporting by Brijesh Patel; Editing by Nick Zieminski, Jonathan
Oatis and David Gregorio)
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