AUSTIN (KXAN) — Early Monday morning, the ERCOT (the Electric Reliability Council of Texas) moved the Energy Emergency Alert to level three, the highest alert level for the state.
ERCOT, who manages the state’s power grid, said Monday around 1:30 a.m. that rotating outages are underway to reduce demand on the electric system.
Additionally, ERCOT said traffic lights and other infrastructure may be temporarily without power.
As severe winter weather conditions impact Texans in all areas of the state, energy providers are urging the public to curb their energy use to help protect the state’s power grid.
ERCOT has been calling on people and businesses across the state to reduce their energy use as much as possible from Sunday, Feb. 14 through Tuesday, Feb. 16.
Sunday evening, ERCOT reported a new winter peak demand record.
ERCOT President and CEO Bill Magness explained Sunday that ERCOT is seeing record-breaking demand due to the extreme cold temperatures seen across Texas. Magness added that ERCOT is also seeing higher-than-normal generation outages due to frozen wind turbines and limited natural gas supplies.
“We are asking Texans to take some simple, safe steps to lower their energy use during this time,” Magness said.
Prior to ERCOT’s move to level three, Austin Energy told KXAN Sunday it is ready to execute rolling outages if needed. But Austin Energy said that would only happen if Austin Energy gets a directive from ERCOT to do so. Austin Energy, like many other Central Texas energy providers, has been calling on the public to take steps to help reduce the state’s energy use, for example decreasing thermostat temperatures.
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