Even with this blistering heat wave, ERCOT says Texas has not come even close to running out of electricity to power the air conditioning even though Texas power demand set a record Wednesday at 6 p.m. with more than 81,350 Megawatts required.
That's over 700 Megawatts more than the record we set on June 27th.
Meanwhile, ERCOT today predicts another record of 83,450 Megawatts. ERCOT's dashboard for today shows a large surplus of power even during the peak heat hours of 3 p.m. to 6 p.m. when there will be at least 6,000 megawatts of electricity capacity more than the expected demand.
Bright, cloudless days actually help the Texas power grid because solar power now supplies about 13 percent of the state's capacity, a little less than coal powered generating plants.
As always, natural gas plants dwarf all other sources generating 55 percent of what the state needs.
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