ERCOT, The Electric Reliability Council of Texas, is asking consumers to reduce energy consumption during peak-demand times this evening until 10 p.m. through tomorrow morning from 6 – 8 a.m.
ERCOT manages the flow of electric power to approximately 22 million Texas customers - representing 85 percent of the state’s electric load and 75 percent of the Texas land area. As the Independent System Operator for the region, ERCOT schedules power on an electric grid that connects 40,000 miles of transmission lines and more than 550 generation units.
The electric grid continues to have more than 5,000 MW of generation out of service due to the effect of the extreme cold. The morning peak was 53,223 MW – with 4,000 MW dropped via rotating outages from 9-10 a.m.
At this time, the forecast for tomorrow’s peak load is 56,800 MW for 7-8 am. ERCOT’s current record for all time winter peak demand is 55,878 MW, which occurred on Jan. 8, 2010.
Rotating outages are controlled, temporary interruptions of electrical service initiated by each utility when supplies of reserve power are exhausted. Without this safety valve, generators would overload and begin shutting down to avoid damage, risking a domino effect of a state-wide outage. Utilities/transmission providers determine the location/scheduling of the rotating outages.
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