Conservation efforts reduce risk to ERCOT grid
Three days of conservation calls have set the ship right in South Texas, officials at ERCOT say. The region is short on generation normally, but unplanned outages led to pleas for consumers to turn down their thermostats during peak hours Wednesday to Friday last week.
“We appreciate consumers’ participation in helping ERCOT maintain reliability without the need for rotating outages this week,” Dan Woodfin, director of system operations, said in a statement.
ERCOT issued a statement on June 3, saying that until the efforts to increase transmission and generation capabilities in the region have been completed, “even minimal unplanned outages during high electricity demand periods can create challenges.” Platts reported that after ERCOT put out the call for conservation, real-time power prices in the South Load Zone spiked to about $130/MWh while other areas averaged closet to $25/MWh.
