HOUSTON, Texas (KTRK) — ERCOT has urged Texans to do so voluntarily save electricity Tuesday from 4pm to 8pm due to extreme heat and expected record demand. Although there was no emergency status, the state’s power grid said conditions were strained.
Residents were asked to set thermostats to 78 degrees or higher, turn off electricity and pool pumps, and avoid large appliances like ovens, washers and dryers. So some wondered what this means for our grid and power supply this summer.
READ MORE: ERCOT issues power conservation warning as Texas temperatures hit near record highs
The debate over our state’s power grid has been a hot topic for years. Some Texans commented that it was understandable for ERCOT to use these conservation notices during the unusually cold winters of recent years. But they wanted to know why the notices are still issued even in our extremely hot summers, which are common in the area.
Daniel Cohan, associate professor of environmental engineering at Rice University, said the state uses multiple energy sources, including wind, solar and fossil fuels. However, when wind production is low, solar power is limited on cloudy days, and thermal outages occur at power plants, a burden arises when energy demand is high.
In addition, ERCOT cannot source electricity from neighboring countries as it operates as an island.
“When multiple things go wrong, (for example) we get a record heatwave while at the same time winds are slow and more than usual power plants are out, that’s the recipe for a combination of conditions that could cause bigger problems than just power outages in the neighborhood,” Cohan said.
Charles McConnell, director of the Center for Carbon Management and Energy Sustainability at the University of Houston, believes this is not ERCOT’s sustainable strategy.
“For my part, I cannot subscribe to a sustainable strategy that requires consumers to turn up their thermostats. That’s not a strategy. This is, in my opinion, a desperate attempt to get through difficult situations,” McConnell said.
He calls for more conversations among officials about how best to meet energy needs over the long term.
“There seems to be a debate about whether or not the future should be just renewable energy (wind and solar) and the closure of all fossil fuel plants (coal and natural gas). From an ecological point of view, wind and sun are not emissions. But “others argue that we need fossil-fuel plants because they provide reliable baseload power, especially during extreme weather conditions like the present,” McConnell said.
He added: “It shouldn’t be a debate either. It should be about how we can facilitate the best mix for the benefit of the public.”
Cohan explained that the construction of new solar parks has caused a stir in Texas in recent years. There are also efforts to develop new power plants and improve maintenance of existing power plants as there are more outages than ERCOT expected due to failures.
He believes the state needs to improve our connections to other networks to make Texas less isolated and vulnerable.
“We could do a lot more for energy efficiency and saving. Texas is doing far less than other states to help homeowners and renters live and work in more energy-efficient places,” said Cohan.
It’s unclear how many more conservation notices we might see from ERCOT this summer. But experts at Energy Ogre said you won’t be charged higher fees for peak-time electricity use because residents pay a flat rate. However, they advise brace yourself for a higher electricity bill soon.
“If you get your bill in late June or early July, you have to keep in mind that May is typically cooler and we haven’t had as high temperatures,” said David Kinchen, chief operating officer at Energy Ogre. “It looks hot next week. The trend could continue for a while if we have these thermal domes in the area. So it’s likely to impact people’s usage bills in the near future. There are ways where people can see their bills double.”
Kinchen said there are small things that can add up when it comes to reducing energy use, like using your dryer’s eco setting or using your dishwasher without a heat setting.
With the June heatwave already so extreme, Cohan encourages Texans to have a plan in place in case July and August get even hotter and cause repeated power outages.
“Half of our power plants are well over 30 years old. If temperatures get several degrees warmer than now and we see more old power plants going out, conditions could get worse when the next really bad heat wave hits.” “A couple of months. None of us can predict the weather weeks in advance. So you’ll have to wait and see,” Cohan said.
In an email to ABC13, a spokesperson for ERCOT said the company “will operate the grid conservatively, bringing generation resources online early to mitigate sudden changes in generation and demand”.
A statement went on to say:
“ERCOT will continue to use all operational tools available, including the implementation of new programmes, such as the new ERCOT Contingency Reserve Service (ECRS), as well as the implementation of legislative reforms from previous sessions (such as summer and winter weather inspections).
ERCOT has been working closely with the Public Utility Commission and elected officials to implement reforms and increase grid reliability, including weathering, bringing additional power generation assets on stream more quickly when needed and purchasing more back-up power. This significantly strengthened the reliability and resilience of the network.”
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