ERCOT Urging Texans to Conserve Power

With temperatures on the rise, ERCOT is asking Texans to conserve energy through Friday (June 18).

Not only will there be an increased demand for electricity due to the summer heat, many of the state’s generators are down for repairs, according to KXXV.

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ERCOT Vice President of Grid Planning and Operations Woody Rickerson says they are conducting an investigation to try and figure out why so many generators are out of service:

“We will be conducting a thorough analysis with generation owners to determine why so many units are out of service. This is unusual for this early in the summer season.”

I actually received an email this morning from Reliant with a few tips for conserving energy:

• Set your thermostat 2-3 degrees higher and run your ceiling fans
• Don’t wash dishes or do loads of laundry until after the sun goes down
• Don’t use your pool pump

It’s expected that the number of outages will decrease as the week goes on, but every little bit we save will help get us through this stretch.

In May, ERCOT said they expected to be able to meet customers’ demand, but predicted that demand would be higher than usual this year.

It’s been a rough year for ERCOT. The grid operator came under fire during the “rolling blackouts” Texans had to endure during the winter storm in February. Several board members resigned in the days following the winter storm and one family is suing ERCOT for the death of their son due to hypothermia.