Beginning Father’s Day, Texas will lead into a record-breaking heat wave with intense temperature and heat indexes of up to 120° F.
This means power use will exceed historical summer demands as homes and businesses crank up their air conditioners to escape the first heat wave of 2023.
The Electric Reliability Council of Texas (ERCOT), which operates the grid for more than 26 million customers representing about 90% of the state’s power load, believes they have enough resources to meet demand.
Last week, ERCOT launched its Contingency Reserve Service (ECRS), to provide enhanced backup ability.
Texas power plants that suddenly stop producing electricity automatically draw on their grids reserve power resources to immediately stabilize operations.
This emergency electricity is only available for up to 15 minutes, with larger reserve generators backing them up but taking up 30 minutes to ramp up for four hours of electricity output.
Historically, this delay could mean emergency electricity could deplete before backup plants began producing ample energy to rescue the grid from an extreme emergency.
ERCOT’s new ancillary service system will ensure some backup generators can come online in just ten minutes and run for at least two hours. The faster response should make the grid more reliable during tight conditions.
The heat index is a measure of what it feels like outside that takes into account the actual air temperature as well as humidity levels. Meteorologists have been warning that the heat wave may persist well into the week with little or no chance of rain to bring relief.
A major reason for concern is rising economic and population growth in the Lone Star State.
Last week, power prices in some locations reached a four-month high of $80 per megawatt hour for Friday from $30 for Thursday. That compares with an average of $30 so far this year, $78 in 2022 and a five-year (2018-2022) average of $66.
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IN GOD WE TRUST
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CINDY LEAL MASSEY, TEXAS AUTHOR
Clever Journeys 
Our governor says, Texas will be alright because our grid is now strong. Somehow, I don’t buy this explanation. We will wait and see.
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Governors and other politicians say things like that, don’t they?
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We will see! Good reminder to turn my air up. Praying we replace Abbott in this next cycle…
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This Storm Will Literally Hit Different…
This video, from a Weather Analyst I find credible, is a must watch. Some peculiar weather is coming to the U.S., some areas will have temperatures 15 degrees below normal, another YouTube show I watch on camping from Canada said snow was predicted in his area, just strange stuff, and a Heat Wave is simultaneously going to occur in the U.S.
Power wise, Wind Turbines should only be permitted if Coal or Hydroelectric Plants are kept operational and ready to be inserted into service. Alas, the government in areas can’t seem to wait to destroy dams and coal power plants, all to push Wind Turbines they are invested in. Unfortunately, when demand is high, certain weather events can take those Wind Turbines off line and leave areas with huge power deficits.
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Will watch. Yes, the dams & coal plants are in danger.
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I know I am way late here. I just want to report last summer was our first one back in the great state of Texas. Whoa! It was so hot! But we survived, and still hugely grateful to be here.
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Glad to have ya’ll back! Awesome.
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Thank you. We have previously lived in San Antonio, Austin, Cedar Park, and San Angelo – and Shreveport, LA, which almost counts as TX. ;) My wife’s dad’s family is from the TX panhandle. Her dad was born in Hale Center; and her granny lived in Canyon – in fact, my wife lived in Canyon for part of her childhood; and her parents lived there when I first met her and them. But she and I met and married in Albuquerque.
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Well, you definitely know Texas if you have lived in all those places! I remember when HEB had a store in Cedar Park. I thought why would we put one there? There is not that many homes out there. That was a good lesson on real estate buying & understanding population growth.
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LOL. Yes, that was definitely a good call. When we lived there (2002) we went to Randall’s because it was, like, one block from where we lived.
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Recalling when a tornado hit Randalls, I sent HEB Maintenance & Construction workers to help them out. Our store team prepared food for Randall employees to have as cleanup & repair operations were underway.
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