Fears of a massive power outage were stoked as the operator of the Lone Star State’s power grid urged Texans to conserve electricity Monday amid triple-digit temperatures.
“With extreme hot weather driving record power demand across Texas, the Electric Reliability Council of Texas (ERCOT) is issuing a Conservation Appeal, asking Texans and Texas businesses to voluntarily conserve electricity, Monday, July 11 between 2-8 p.m,” said ERCOT late Sunday.
System-wide outages are not expected, said ERCOT, while explaining that it was issuing the notification because electricity reserves may fall below 2300 megawatts for 30 minutes or more.
However, ERCOT’s competency has been questioned after a near-collapse of the grid led to a statewide outage in February 2021.
Many Texans took to social media to say they were not going to conserve energy due to their lack of trust in ERCOT.
“I’m not turning my AC up to save power. It’s y’all fault we froze to death literally. Now you are trying to kill us by having heat stroke,” tweeted one user.
Transmission towers are seen near the CenterPoint Energy power plant on July 11, 2022, in Houston, Texas. Getty Images/ Brandon Bell
ERCOT’s competency has been questioned after a statewide outage in 2021. Reuters/ Julia Robinson
Many Texans are frustrated with the unreliable grid. AP/Jay JannerAs a historic winter storm iced over the state in 2021, ERCOT urged Texans to conserve power to avoid rolling blackouts. Hours later, nearly all of the state lost power for days — except El Paso, because the city gets its electricity from a different power grid. At least 246 people died, mostly due to hypothermia, said the state health department, though other estimates put the number of dead closer to 7,000.
“Since May, Texas has set and broken power demand records 26 times without any system wide issues or disruptions for the more than 26 million Texans served by the electric grid,” said Gov. Greg Abbott, who has largely taken credit for fixing the grid.
“The ERCOT power grid has been able to meet those challenges and respond in record ways, providing more power than ever before and doing so more efficiently, in large part because of the reforms passed last session and the increase in power generation by more than 15% over last year.”
Meanwhile, the governor’s political opponent, El Paso Democrat Beto O’Rourke, promised to fix the power grid if he’s elected in November.
“We can’t rely on the grid when it’s hot. We can’t rely on the grid when it’s cold. We can’t rely on Greg Abbott. It’s time to vote him out and fix the grid,” tweeted O’Rourke.
