The Electric Reliability Council of Texas (ERCOT) recently issued a weather watch through June 30 “due to expected warmer temperatures and increased electricity demand.”
In a statement posted on its website, ERCOT noted that grid conditions are expected to be normal during a weather watch. The organization said it continues to monitor conditions closely, adding that it will deploy all available tools to manage the network and continue its “reliability operations first approach.”
ERCOT noted in the release that it set a new June peak demand record of 79,304 MW on June 19. The organization also noted in the release that its six-day supply and demand dashboard showed the possibility of a new peak in historic demand. record this week.
“There is currently sufficient capacity to meet projected demand,” ERCOT said in the statement.
Last year, ERCOT set 11 new peak demand records, surpassing 80 GW for the first time, the organization noted in the statement. The current record of 80,148 MW was set on July 20, 2022, ERCOT said in the statement.
In a post on its Twitter page on June 27, ERCOT confirmed that the weather watch continues through June 30.
“Grid conditions are expected to be normal and ERCOT continues to monitor forecasts,” the organization noted in the release.
Notice of voluntary conservation
Earlier this month, ERCOT asked Texans to voluntarily reduce electricity use, “if it is safe to do so, due to extreme temperatures and expected record demand.” This voluntary conservation notice went into effect on June 20, from 4 to 8 p.m. CT.
“The voluntary conservation advisory is part of ERCOT’s Texas Advisory and Notification System (TXANS), which alerts the public to network conditions,” ERCOT said in a statement from the organization at the time.
“Last week, ERCOT issued a weather watch for June 15-21 due to rising temperatures and high demand,” ERCOT added in the statement.
ERCOT revealed in the release that it was asking all government agencies, including municipal and county offices, to implement all programs to reduce energy consumption at their facilities. The organization emphasized in the statement that it was not experiencing emergency conditions.
“Voluntary conservation is a widely used industry tool that can help reduce demand for a specific period of peak demand, which is typically the late afternoon to evening hours,” ERCOT said. in the statement.
“ERCOT is using additional tools to reliably manage the grid, such as using reserve power, asking for reductions from large electric customers who have offered to reduce their power use and put more generation online sooner,” the organization added.
New Auxiliary Service
Also in June, ERCOT announced that it had launched the ERCOT Contingency Reserve Service (ECRS), which it described as a new ancillary service for daily procurement.
“As power demand continues to grow in Texas, adding ECRS will support grid reliability and mitigate real-time operational issues to keep supply and demand balanced,” ERCOT said in a statement on the release of ECRS.
“As summer temperatures begin to rise across Texas and with high demand expected, we will continue to use all operational tools available, including implementing new programs like ECRS,” said ERCOT President and CEO, Pablo Vegas, in this statement.
“ERCOT will also implement legislative reforms from previous sessions, such as our HVAC inspections, and we will continue our approach to reliability operations first, always prioritizing grid reliability,” he added.
In the release, ERCOT highlighted that ECRS is the first daily purchase ancillary service introduced to the ERCOT market in more than 20 years. Ancillary services are additional tools ERCOT uses to manage uncertainty and variability on the grid, ERCOT said in the release.
ERCOT manages the flow of electric power to more than 26 million Texas customers, who account for about 90 percent of the state’s electric load, the organization notes on its website, adding that, as independent operator of the region’s system, schedules the feed into an electrical grid. network connecting more than 52,700 miles of transmission lines and more than 1,100 generating units, including private use networks.
ERCOT is a 501(c)(4) membership-based nonprofit corporation, governed by a board of directors and subject to oversight by the Public Utility Commission of Texas and the Texas Legislature.
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