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The
Electric Reliability Council of Texas (ERCOT), which operates
the grid for more than 26 million customers representing about
90% of the state's power load, forecast demand would hit 85,471
megawatt hours on June 27, topping last year's peak of 80,148
MWh.
This would be at least the third time in about two weeks that
the grid operator has forecast record high demand.
AccuWeather forecast high temperatures in Houston, the biggest
city in Texas, will hit 102.2 F (39 degrees Celsius) on Tuesday.
That compares with a normal high of 93.2 F (34 degrees Celsius)
for this time of year.
ERCOT issued a weather watch for June 25-30, forecasting higher
temperatures driving demand higher.
Extreme weather is a reminder of the 2021 February freeze that
left millions of Texans without power, water and heat for days
during a deadly storm as ERCOT scrambled to prevent a grid
collapse after an unusually large amount of generation was shut
down.
Power use last week fell short of the record high forecast by
ERCOT after storms and storm-related power outages reduced usage
and consumers heeded the grid operator's June 20 call to
conserve energy.
At present, Kentucky, Tennessee and Arkansas are seeing power
outages of 100,000 users each, according to data from
poweroutages.us, while Texas outages stood at about 3,000 users.
Day-ahead power prices at the ERCOT North Hub, which includes
Dallas, are expected to rise to $1,711.23 per megawatt hour (MWh)
from 15:00 CT to 16:00 CT.
(Reporting by Seher Dareen in Bengaluru and Scott DiSavino in
New York; editing by Jason Neely)
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