ERCOT issues notice to ease Texas power grid stress
June 16, 2021
This morning ERCOT had a conference call with members of the Legislature and the PUC to go over the recent stress on the Texas grid.
ERCOT saw a number of factors affect the grid beginning this week on Sunday and going into Monday that we have not experienced before:
- Wind generation was less than half of what was expected based on historical performance
- High number of unexpected mechanical failures at our generation sites across the State
- Unusually high demand not seen before this month of June.
In response to these events, ERCOT called on all generation plants to come online to help meet this demand, as well as issued a week long conservation notice through Friday out of caution even as more generation sites come online. While these conservation notices are in response to the stress on the grid, we are not in danger of failure or collapse of the grid as a whole. The notice is temporary and is simply a tool to prevent more extreme measures similar to what we saw during the winter storm in February.
ERCOT has assured us that they are investigating these events and will be improving their communication to the public as they navigate the process.
Follow Kyle