As the temperature will hit yet another high today, ERCOT has Texans under a weather watch but that could change to a call for conservation before you know it.
TCU Assistant Professor of Professional Practice in Energy Tom Seng says for the constant demand the grid has faced due to historically high temperatures, ERCOT is managing the power grid well.
"You're going to have maintenance issues especially when you've been running them," said Seng. "Think about this stretch that we've had, these things are running hard every single day."
Another problem the intensely hot summer has caused for the grid is a lack of reserve energy provided by batteries. With the drop off of solar energy at night and winds dying off while we continue facing high demand it's forcing the grid to have to dip into reserved energy.
"Part of the problem is because there's been such high demand for so long, day in and day out they really haven't had the generating capacity to charge those batteries," said Seng.
Although Seng says this type of demand and consistently hot and dry weather isn't something ERCOT has ever seen.
"I mean there's been about a 11 or 12 record in terms of new peaks and lows," said Seng. "Today they're forcasting something that could push almost 85,000 MegaWatts, which is huge which they've not experienced in past summers."
Seng said while ERCOT is managing the grid to the best of its ability during this challenging summer heat, he says a little bit more clarity when we see these calls for conservation or an emergency alert may help consumers understand what's happening with the grid more clearly.
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"When they issue those, there should be a bit more explanation, you know," said Seng. "We're experiencing high load. We are having some problems with generation but we don't expect this to last very long please help us out if you can. When the announcement came out the way it did everybodies like oh my god we're going to have blackouts."
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