The Electric Reliability Council of Texas said it is equipped to handle increased demand amid this week’s unrelenting heat.
ERCOT, which supplies electricity to more than 25 million customers, represents 90% of the State’s electricity load. The grid has come under scrutiny in recent years, especially after the deadly winter storm in February 2021 that left millions without power.
On June 27, demand reached a new high of 80,282 megawattsand ERCOT six day forecast shows demand to break this record: 84,249 megawatts on Thursday, 84,062 megawatts on Friday and 82,668 megawatts on Saturday.
“ERCOT expects sufficient generation to meet projected demand,” the agency said in an email. Their forecast shows several thousand megawatts of capacity beyond daily demand.
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In a report in early May, ERCOT projected peak demand for this summer to be 82,739 megawatts and said it expects no outages this season, barring extreme weather conditions. Historically, summer peak demand has grown at an average of 2% from 2013 to 2022, according to a January report.
Related: Can the Texas grid handle the summer heat? Local experts intervene
Last summer, the state grid broke the demand record 11 times, reaching approximately 80,000 megawatts in the extreme heat.
In Dallas, temperatures are expected to climb into the triple digits for several days, according to the National Weather Service. The heat index is expected to be between 105 and 112, which could make the outdoors feel especially scorching.
