Texas power grids stressed during current heat wave

Texas power grids are being challenged this week as a blistering heat wave continues to drive temperatures to record highs and push power consumption to historic levels.

The hot temperatures are expected to push power demand to new heights, with the state’s grid operator projecting usage may peak at 86 gigawatts this week. This level of demand would pass the previous record of 85.5 gigawatts set in August of last year, according to Bloomberg.

To put this in perspective, one gigawatt is enough to power nearly 200,000 homes across Texas.

The extreme heat is not only straining the state’s power infrastructure but also raising concerns about potential blackouts and soaring energy costs.

On Monday, Xcel Energy along with other local electric cooperatives declared an energy alert.

That energy alert urged customers to cut back on their electricity use and that alert was in effect until 10 p.m. Central Daylight Time, 9 p.m. Mountain.

“It’s basically when the system gets constrained, so we have really hot weather, our usage is at a peak at this time of year and we have some units, in this case, three power units that came offline for unplanned maintenance, so obviously you want everything running on a day like yesterday, so we had some units come offline and then we also had some transmission issues on the transmission feed coming into the system and we still had enough power to serve, but at that point as I told other folks, really out of an abundance of caution we decided to go to our customers and says conditions are tight and it would be really helpful if you would conserve electricity through a certain time…We got through it fine, even during that time some of these units came back online and so this morning the situation was different,” Xcel Energy Spokesperson Wes Reeves said.

Reeves shares some tips on what you can do to save some money and energy this summer.

“Anytime, whether you are being asked to converse or not, you have to consider your air conditioner, especially if you have a refrigerated system, a central system that is using a lot of electricity, in fact probably half of your bill in the summertime is going to be from an air conditioner, so if you can control the thermostat, maybe limit the amount of times it kicks on, you are going to see savings over time, your bill is going to be less, and that reserves more megawatts and kilowatts for your neighbors and all of us. Air conditioning, number one. Lighting is also important. Lighting as become cheaper in many ways through the use of LED lights, so replacing your older style bulbs with LEDs is going to save a lot of energy, they are sometimes costlier up front, but you don’t replace them as often,” Reeves said.

Reeves said we do need more power capacity in this region.

“It’s grown, the demand has grown, the industrial demand especially when we look at southeast New Mexico where a lot of oil and gas development is taking place and if you took a look at the age of our power units, some of them going back to the late 50s and early 60s, we know we have to retire some of those units, but we also have to build enough to take care of the added demand that’s come on the system. Just in recent weeks, we have put out a request for proposal to the general marketplace for ideas and proposals for new power generation in our region, and we are expecting we need between 3,000 and 5,000 megawatts of capacity added to our system. That’s quite a bit in a short amount of time. A lot of this needs to happen by the end of this decade,” Reeves said.

The Electric Reliability Council of Texas (ERCOT), which oversees the state’s power grid, has warned of “tight operating conditions” during this heat wave. Despite these warnings, ERCOT maintains that there should be sufficient supplies to meet the high demand.

Texas’ power grid has previously struggled during severe weather events. In February 2021, Winter Storm Uri led to widespread power outages, leaving millions without electricity and resulting in over 200 fatalities.

In response to the current heat wave, power prices have surged, with the cost of electricity reaching $500 per megawatt hour during peak evening hours. This marks the highest hourly price in the past two weeks, reported Bloomberg.

Despite recent legislative efforts to increase power capacity in Texas, the state’s electric grid continues to face significant challenges, particularly with regard to its resilience during severe weather.

Hurricane Beryl, which struck on July 8, resulted in a prolonged power outage affecting more than 2.6 million customers in Texas well after the storm had passed.

In early July, Texas officials addressed comments made by ERCOT CEO Pablo Vegas, who had raised the possibility that the state might need up to 150,000 megawatts of electricity by 2030 to maintain grid stability, according to Texas Scorecard.

At present, Texas produces around 85,000 megawatts of power through a mix of wind, solar, coal, nuclear, and natural gas sources.

Utility companies such as CenterPoint and Oncor have outlined extensive plans to improve the energy grid’s resilience, but they may require billions of dollars in investments.

CenterPoint has proposed a $2 billion project to upgrade poles and wires, but it wants federal and state taxpayer money to offset costs. Oncor has estimated its grid enhancement plan to cost nearly $3 billion, which includes replacing poles, installing underground wiring, and enhancing tree trimming services.