Texas' main power grid operator is asking for voluntary electricity conservation today as widespread, extreme heat and low wind-power generation may threaten the supply-demand balance.
The Electric Reliability Council of Texas (ERCOT) issued the conservation notice from 4-11pm ET, citing high temperatures, near-record power demand and low wind-power generation. The notice is one step below an energy emergency alert, which would include rotating outages in the last stage in that scenario.
Day-ahead power prices peaked at nearly $4,000/MWh by midday. As of 2pm ET ERCOT's public-facing data dashboard showed demand could surpass available power generating capacity by 8:40pm ET today.
ERCOT issued a weather watch earlier this week effective yesterday through 27 August, warning of hotter conditions with higher electrical demand and potentially lower reserves. The grid operator said in that notice that it had enough power to meet projected demand during the period.
So far this summer 10 new all-time peak demand records have been in ERCOT. The latest all-time peak demand record was set on 10 August at 85,435MW.
