SAN ANTONIO — It’s going to be another hot day across Texas, but ERCOT is not anticipating to issue any more conservation requests this week.
This comes after Texas set an unofficial record for demand on Monday.
This was supposed to be the grid’s biggest test since the February 2021 winter storm.
The demand for power hit an all-time peak at 78,264 megawatts on Monday. The previous record was set just three days before on Friday.
ERCOT was asking folks to conserve power on Monday from 2 p.m. until 8 p.m.
At around 2 p.m., the state’s demand for electricity neared the supply, which is when the grid operator updated its condition from green to yellow.
But temperatures weren’t as hot as expected and the data shows Texans may have complied with the requests to conserve.
Energy experts say wind and solar produced enough energy to ensure the supply and thankfully there were no rolling blackouts.
Still, concerns were raised among energy experts.
Customers were asked to cut electricity use due to high demand and low wind.
An ERCOT news release showed wind would generate less than ten percent of it’s potential capacity.
Some energy experts saying ERCOT was ready to blame the wind if the lights went out.
“It highlighted this sort of early afternoon times when winds were slow, it neglected how winds picked up just like forecast later in the afternoon so today’s late afternoon when demand was highest, wind was actually starting to pick up.”
Wind did underperform on Monday, as well as a few other energy suppliers.
Demand is expected to be even higher Tuesday, but experts also expect better wind conditions.