Courtesy Photo / ERCOT
Energy demand is forecast to exceed committed energy capacity at 7:40 p.m. on Friday, according to ERCOT's online Energy Supply and Demand dashboard.
“Current forecasts are showing a potential to enter emergency operations this evening because of expected low wind-power generation and high demand,” the Electric Reliability Council of Texas (ERCOT) said in a statement. “ERCOT will continue to closely monitor conditions throughout the day and will keep the public informed through our communication channels.”
It’s the fourth time this week that ERCOT has asked Texans to reduce energy usage to avoid a potential collapse of the grid.
On Thursday afternoon, ERCOT officials, CPS Energy CEO Rudy Garza and Nirenberg pleaded with Alamo City residents to prepare for possible outages. Luckily, those never came.
The Express-News speculates that severe thunderstorms in Houston might have reduced the state’s overall energy demand Thursday evening, sparing residents from outages. The storms knocked some 65,000 customers in Harris County off the grid between the peak energy hours of 7 p.m. and 9 p.m.
In their Friday statement, ERCOT officials said “timely rainfall in the Houston area” and improved wind conditions helped prevent a load-shed event.
As of press time, energy demand is expected to exceed capacity at 7:40 p.m. Friday, according to ERCOT’s Energy Supply and Demand dashboard. Raising the risk, no major thunderstorms are forecast to strike the Lone Star State within the next 12 hours.
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