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AUSTIN (KXAN) — The Electric Reliability Council of Texas (ERCOT) expects tight energy conditions for Wednesday afternoon, but isn’t asking Texans to conserve energy at this time.
On Tuesday afternoon, the council asked customers and businesses to conserve energy after about a quarter of its generating capacity, 32,000 megawatts, went offline for expected maintenance. The system was able to avoided entering “emergency conditions.”
“Our energy conservation appeal has ended without the need for an energy emergency. Thank you for conserving energy when it was needed,” ERCOT said Tuesday night.
ERCOT says more generating capacity, around 33,000 megawatts, is expected to be offline for maintenance Wednesday, but they aren’t requesting conservation efforts currently.
“We may see tight grid conditions due to the large number of generators out of service for planned and forced maintenance combined with low wind and solar output forecasted for today,” Woody Rickerson, the ERCOT Vice President of Grid Planning and Operations, said.
ERCOT says the conditions aren’t always directly correlated to high demand. The spring and fall seasons are normal times for scheduled maintenance. As a result, there is less overall energy capacity for demand.
“Just like maintaining your car, generators must be maintained to keep them running smoothly,” Rickerson said in the release. “ERCOT must balance these necessary outages with serving load during the spring and fall months, especially given increased weather volatility.”
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