ERCOT asks Texans to conserve energy Tuesday due to thermal power plants being offline
NORTH TEXAS (CBSNewsTexas.com) — With the extreme heat North Texas has been experiencing this summer, you're probably used to hearing ERCOT's calls for conservation.
On Tuesday, Texans were asked to cut back on their power usage between the hours of 5 and 9 p.m., but for a unique reason. This request had to do with multiple thermal power plants being offline.
"There are a couple of thermal units, that is to say natural gas or coal powered plants, that are offline," energy expert Bernard Weinstein said. "They could have tripped during the extremely hot weather, they may be down for maintenance, but it's still pretty hot out there."
North Texas is also dealing with low wind generation.
"It hasn't been pretty windy today and on a good wind day we can get up to 30% of our electrons from wind power," Weinstein said.
ERCOT is concerned about demand outpacing supply.
So how do we prevent this situation from happening in the future? Weinstein says one way is the addition of more gas-fired power plants.
"The legislature determined that renewables are risky and that we have been neglecting investments in baseload power, so we the people are going to be asked to approve a huge amount of tax dollars combined with utility dollars to build more baseload gas fired power plants and we'll see if that passes in November," Weinstein said.
Looking at Wednesday, ERCOT says it expects to see similar conditions. Another call to conserve may be necessary.
