It has been a record hot May in parts of Texas, and the state is in for more of the same this week. According to the Electric Reliability Council of Texas, six power plants in Texas went offline on Friday because of the heat. To avoid overloading the rest of the power supply, Texans were asked to reduce their electricity usage.
Texans are being asked to conserve power when they can by setting their thermostats to 78 degrees or above and avoiding the use of large appliances during peak hours.
The heat that caused the early season failures isn't going away. In some parts of the state, temperatures were expected to reach 105 degrees Fahrenheit (40.6 Celsius) on Monday. It will stay hot through Friday, with triple digit temperatures projected in and around San Antonio, Fort Worth, and West Texas. The highs are 10 degrees hotter than average.
Texas' uniquely vulnerable electric grid could face more disruption, just as people need their air conditioners and fans to be working the most. Power plants were 800-313-5780 800-313-5780 800-313-5780 800-313-5780 800-313-5780 800-313-5780 800-313-5780 800-313-5780 800-313-5780 800-313-5780 800-313-5780 800-313-5780 800-313-5780 800-313-5780 800-313-5780 800-313-5780 800-313-5780 800-313-5780 800-313-5780 800-313-5780 800-313-5780 800-313-5780 800-313-5780 800-313-5780 800-313-5780 800-313-5780 800-313-5780 800-313-5780 800-313-5780 800-313-5780 800-313-5780 800-313-5780 800-313-5780 800-313-5780 800-313-5780 800-313-5780 800-313-5780 800-313-5780 800-313-5780 800-313-5780 800-313-5780 800-313-5780 800-313-5780 800-313-5780 800-313-5780 800-313-5780 800-313-5780 800-313-5780 800-313-5780 800-313-5780 800-313-5780 800-313-5780 800-313-5780 800-313-5780 800-313-5780 The grid still has big limits despite the precautions that were taken this weekend.
Texas has its own power grid. Texas can't borrow from a neighbor as other states can, because of extreme weather. The Texas electricity market is energy-only, meaning producers aren't incentivized to produce back-up power. On a good day, the grid is overtaxed, with some of the slimmest margins between power use and availability in the country.
The ERCOT asked businesses and households to limit how much electricity they used on Friday, the third time they have done that since the catastrophic winter power failures. The first limit request was in April of 2021. The second happened a couple of months later in June when a few power plants shut off due to the heat.
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In the same month, Texas Governor Greg Abbott signed legislation. One of the laws made changes to ERCOT's board, and mandated weatherization for power generators and transmission lines. After he signed those two bills, Abbott declared that everything that needed to be done was done to fix the power grid in Texas.
Experts say the state needs to make infrastructure improvements to meet the needs of Texas under climate change. According to the Houston Chronicle, Republican lawmakers in the state stymied further legislation which would have required more backup power generation. This Friday's power plant failures and rationing notice show that Abbott wasn't quite right.
ERCOT didn't say which power plants shut down on Friday. It wasn't the fault of green energy, as Abbott would have you believe. The solar performance remained high. It was likely because of the heat. There is a link between high temperatures and power grid stability.
When it is hot, energy demand goes up as people use air conditioning and fans. Things go wrong when heat makes them go wrong. Electricity generation and transport become less efficient if they get too hot.
Just a few hours before the ERCOT announcement of power plant failures went out, Abbott sought to assure Texans that the grid was stable. He posted a photo of himself with utility company execs and said that they were working to ensure Texas' power grid remained reliable.
Lieutenant Governor Dan Patrick said in a statement that this weekend's energy efficiency warning is another sign that we must have greater reliability. He said last June's laws were a first step.
Which is true. Climate change will likely cause more heat waves. Climate change may have had a hand in the extreme cold in Texas in 2021. If we want to keep our AC running, we need to change our electric grids.
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