Texas will have enough electricity for winter, grid operator says
The Texas electrical grid will be able to handle the demands of the state’s households this winter and next spring, the grid’s operator announced Tuesday.
The Electric Reliability Council of Texas, which operates the electric grid and market that serves most of Texas, released its seasonal report that evaluates whether the grid can meet peak electric demand during the winter months, from December to February, and in the spring, from March to May.
“Based on the current forecast, we expect to have sufficient generation to support high demand on the system, even in the most extreme conditions studied,” Warren Lasher, ERCOT’s senior director of system planning, said in a statement released by ERCOT.
Lasher, though, said the operator can’t account for minor, localized outages caused by downed power lines during ice storms.
“While we do not anticipate any systemwide reliability issues, there is a possibility of localized impacts if multiple outages occur during extreme weather conditions.”
In the report, ERCOT anticipates a winter peak demand of more than 58,000 megawatts, which would surpass ERCOT’s winter record of 57,265 MW set on Feb. 10, 2011. One megawatt of demand is typically enough to power about 500 homes during mild weather conditions, ERCOT said.
