By Dave Pulver
ERCOT, the agency managing the Texas Power grid, warned consumers to conserve electricity by turning up their thermostats and turning off pool pumps. It was the third time this year that ERCOT has called on residents to cut power usage, and the second time it has warned of the potential for rolling blackouts.
100-degree days have driven electrical demand up to as high as 78,000 Megawatts by midafternoon. Friday’s demand reached 70,000 Megawatts by 7:00 PM with only 3,885 Megawatts of reserve generating capacity. Texas’s combined wind and solar generating capacity reached 14,012 Megawatts at 8:00 PM. Wind and solar power are inherently unreliable sources of power in that there are no guarantees on any given day how much solar power will be available. Grid operators can only forecast future solar production based on historical data.
According to a Monday Bloomberg article, Texas Bitcoin miners responded to an ERCOT request to shut down their energy-intensive computer centers releasing 1,000 Megawatts of power back to the grid.
In February 2021, a grid failure led to the deaths of more than 200 people in freezing weather and prompted an overhaul of the grid regulator.
Reuters contributed to this article.
Bio: Dave Pulver is a staff writer at NFN. A retired communications engineer of 35 years, his interests include technology, history, civics, and politics.
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