TYLER, Texas — The heat has been intense and demand for electricity is high, but the power across the state stayed on after a plea from the Electric Reliability Council of Texas Monday asking Texans to conserve energy.
Data showed the demand was lower than what ERCOT was predicting Monday night. As of the 10 p.m. Monday, ERCOT has not asked Texans to conserve power Tuesday, but it’s still something to keep doing.
Joshua Rhodes, research associate at the Weber Energy Group at UT Austin, said it hasn’t been this hot for this long across major metro areas in Texas.
And with it being a Monday, we have a lot of ACs and power demands running from homes to business offices putting a dangerous strain on the electrical grid.
"You know that all that drives even higher than it has before," Rhodes said. "And yeah, we have some shortages of some of our power plants. Not all of our thermal fleets operating not the way it's not flowing as strongly as it has in the past."
Looking ahead, the population in Texas is only going to get bigger, which means a larger demand on the grid.
A professor at UT Tyler mentioned that these conservation notices do not mean rolling blackouts are imminent, rather it’s a request for everyone to change their electric habits.
Here's some tips that can help:
- Using the Texas heat to dry clothes instead of a dryer, such as a clothesline.
- Only running the washer, dryer, and dishwasher when fully loaded and not during the heat of the day and using the air-dry setting on your dishwasher. The heat-dry setting uses more energy and releases heat into the home making your AC unit work harder.
Again, ERCOT said rolling blackouts are not expected anytime soon, but if blackouts do happen they’ll be short and won’t be for multiple days.
CBS 19 will continue to keep an eye on the grid and bring you the latest updates both on air and online.