The Electric Reliability Council of Texas made another public appeal to conserve energy for the second day in a row on Friday.
Triple-digit temperatures are expected to continue, driving up electricity demand. When the gap between available electric supply and demand significantly narrows, the agency typically issues a conservation appeal, requesting customers to reduce their electricity usage.
On Thursday, the Electric Reliability Council of Texas (ERCOT) issued an appeal for the day’s afternoon and evening hours.
“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. As a result, ERCOT is asking Texans to conserve electricity use, if safe to do so,” ERCOT said in a statement on Thursday, NBC 5 DFW reported.
The National Weather Service recorded temperatures across the North Texas region ranging from 104 to 107 that day. The voluntary conservation measures seemed to pay off, allowing ERCOT to avoid emergency operations.
“Thank you to Texas residents & businesses for your conservation efforts, which, along with additional reliability tools, helped us to get through a tight peak time,” ERCOT tweeted Thursday evening.
As of 2 p.m. on Friday, the power grid was operating with sufficient reserves, according to the ERCOT dashboard. However, shortly after that, the agency issued another conservation appeal for 3-9 p.m.
Despite continuous days of triple-digit temperatures and record demand for electricity this summer, the state’s power grid has thus far held steady. Texas electricity customers have set 10 all-time records for power consumption over the last three months, according to an ERCOT news release. The most recent record was set on August 10, when consumers used a total of 85,435 MW of electricity.
On Saturday at 4 p.m., the available electric capacity is projected to be 85,248 MW, while demand is expected to reach 82,270 MW. On Sunday at 4 p.m., the electric capacity is predicted to hit 85,455 MW, with an anticipated demand of 82,555 MW.