It already feels like August in Texas, at least where ERCOT and the state’s electricity grid are concerned.
The weather is fine - clear, warm and sunny as it tends to be in mid-May. But the grid, managed by a quasi-agency with the word “Reliability” somewhat ironically contained in its name (Electric Reliability Council of Texas), most definitely is not so fine. Friday evening, ERCOT was forced for the second time this non-summer month to warn Texans of a potential shortage of capacity on the grid after 6 power generation facilities totaling 2,900 MWH tripped offline for unspecified reasons.
“We’re asking Texans to conserve power when they can by setting their thermostats to 78-degrees or above and avoiding the usage of large appliances (such as dishwashers, washers and dryers) during peak hours between 3 p.m. and 8 p.m. through the weekend,” ERCOT’s notice pleaded. It’s the kind of warning Texans have sadly become conditioned to receiving during the month of August, perhaps even early September, in recent years as the power grid has been allowed by seemingly-paralyzed state officials to deteriorate into an increasingly unstable and unreliable state.
Such a warning in those months would have been basically a shoulder-shrugging moment. But in May, on a day when the weather was not noticeably unseasonably warm? This does not bode well for the summer season ahead.