Texas power grid breaks record as heatwave pummels state

Officials say there will be enough electricity to handle demand as people turn on their air conditioners to combat the heat

Power demand in Texas hit a new all-time high on Thursday as an ongoing heatwave pushed temperatures in parts of the state above 100 degrees Fahrenheit (38C).

Records will likely be broken again on Friday and Monday as heat continues to push through the state and residents power up their air conditioners.

The Electric Reliability Council of Texas (ERCOT), which operates the grid for more than 26 million customers representing about 90 per cent of the state’s power load, has said it has enough resources available to meet demand.

In February 2021, a winter storm left millions of Texans without power, water and heat for days during a deadly storm as ERCOT scrambled to prevent a grid collapse when electricity production dropped off.

This week, ERCOT said power use soared to a preliminary 75,124 megawatts (MW) on Thursday. The current all-time high of 74,917 MW was set this past Sunday, 12 June.

ERCOT expects power use to reach 75,882 MW on Friday and 76,485 MW on Monday. Most of Texas’s grid is unconnected to the rest of the country’s, which caused issues during last year’s winter storm when blackouts hit.

AccuWeather forecast high temperatures in Houston, the biggest city in Texas, will rise from 94 Fahrenheit (34.4 Celsius) on Friday to 103 F on Sunday and 101 F on Monday. That exceeds the normal high of 92 F for this time of year.

Despite record-setting demand, power prices at the ERCOT North Hub, which includes Dallas, only rose to a one-week high of $100 per megawatt hour for Friday from $87 for Thursday. That compares with an average of $63 so far this year.

ERCOT forecast economic growth would boost peak demand to 77,317 MW this summer. The grid expects new wind and solar power plants added over the past year will increase resources available this summer to 91,392 MW.

Last year’s winter storm blackouts caused some public officials to blame wind turbines and solar panels, despite the fact that much of the power loss came from natural gas, coal and nuclear power, the AP reported at the time.

Extreme heat has pummeled much of the country over the past week, as high temperatures spread from the southwest up through the Great Lakes region.

Heatwaves are expected to become both more common and hotter as the climate crisis accelerates. As the world reaches 2C of warming above 19^th century norms, heatwaves that once occurred every 10 years would happen about every other year — and be 2.6C hotter than before, according to the most recent report from the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC).

Currently, the world has warmed by about 1.2C — and is on track to reach 2.7C of warming by the end of the century, according to the Climate Action Tracker.

Reuters contributed to this report