AUSTIN (Talk1370.com) -- Texans are once again being asked to conserve electricity Thursday afternoon by the state's electric grid operator.
Officials with the Electric Reliability Council of Texas, or ERCOT, issued the appeal just before noon Thursday, asking Texans to reduce electricity usage between 3 p.m. and 10 p.m.
“Due to low wind-power generation and high demand, operating reserves for ERCOT are expected to be low for several hours this afternoon into the evening,” officials said.
A Conservation Alert is the first of four steps ERCOT uses to help reduce grid usage. The request is strictly voluntary, and should only be followed if Texans can "safely do so."
With the Conservation Alert in place, government agencies across the state, including county and city offices, are being asked to implement all programs to reduce energy usage.
Beyond a Conservation Alert, if grid conditions continue to tighten, ERCOT will enter three stages of what it calls "Energy Emergency Alerts." A level 3 EEA, which was last issued during the February 2021 winter storm, is where ERCOT will ask utility providers across the state to begin controlled outages.
A level 2 EEA would see power cut off to large industrial customers who have previously agreed to have their power interrupted in an emergency situation.
The ongoing triple-digit heat across much of the state has led to new record demands on the ERCOT grid. Earlier this month, a new all-time unofficial record peak demand of 85,435 megawatts was set on August 10; the peak demand last summer was 78,465 megawatts.
