Texas Cold Weather Warning: ERCOT Urges Electrical Conservation

The Public Utility Commission of Texas observes winter weatherPhoto byX (Twitter)

The Electric Reliability Council of Texas (ERCOT) wasn’t fully prepared for this winter storm. Dallas saw freezing temperatures over the weekend and it caused one water main to break.  

With temperatures in the low teens, ERCOT encouraged residents to limit their electrical use on Monday and Tuesday morning from 6 to 9 am as temperatures will still be cold. 

ERCOT released a statement and said according to KUT:

“Due to continued freezing temperatures, very high demand and unseasonably low wind, operating reserves for the Texas power grid are expected to be low Monday morning, January 15, prior to the solar ramp up.” 

ERCOT made these recommendations:

• lower the thermostat by a degree or two
• avoid using large appliances like washers and driers
• turn off lights when not in use

NBC Dallas-Fort Worth conducted an investigation that ERCOT was not done with hundreds of generator inspections. They were expected to be finished in February.  

Rice University Energy Expert, Daniel Cohan said according to NBC Dallas-Fort Worth:

“The really big change since a few years ago was that every power plant operator had to come up with a plan showing how they could perform better in the extreme cold that we had then. And so you had really rigorous set of inspections and really rigorous set of planning that happened after the 2021 storm. And, at least so far, those plans appear to be holding up pretty well.” 

Last week, ERCOT issued a winter weather warning on its website. 

Do you think ERCOT is doing as much as it can to help Texans?