The Electric Reliability Council of Texas is urging power plants to voluntarily reschedule maintenance that would knock them offline this week. North Texas could reach into the upper 80s Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday while some parts of South and West Texas could hit the mid-90s.
Tuesday morning, ERCOT said the grid was operating under normal conditions with more than 9,000 MW of reserves. During peak demand, ERCOT estimates one megawatt can power about 200 homes.
By Tuesday evening, though, ERCOT forecasts reserves could drop to about 3,000 MW as solar and wind production drop after 8 p.m. Tuesday morning, ERCOT said solar and wind production accounted for 43.5% of power generation. Natural gas accounted for 37% of production, and coal was 11%.
Friday, ERCOT issued a notice to power plants to delay planned outages for maintenance from Tuesday at 3 p.m. through 11 p.m. Wednesday. Plants that could not delay an outage were told to notify ERCOT.
Power plants may schedule maintenance for spring and fall when demand is expected to be lower.
Tuesday morning, ERCOT said plants reported about 32,000 MW of generation outages; 13,000 were planned for maintenance, and 19,000 were forced.
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