Tight Power Supplies This Summer
Those of you who follow us on social media may have seen my recent video regarding the tight summer power supply projections. I know you’ve all been seeing it on TV and reading about it in the newspapers, so I wanted to give you a little bit of perspective. If you missed it, here’s a recap and a little bit more information than we can put in a 2 minute video.
The Electric Reliability Council of Texas (ERCOT) projected peak demand for this summer is 82,739 megawatts. The Texas grid broke records 11 times last year, with peak demand topping out near 80,000 megawatts. Last summer was extremely hot, and experts say this summer could be as hot. . .or hotter.
ERCOT Chairman Peter Lake recently stated in a press conference,“The Texas grid is facing a new real- ity.” He explained, “We’re going into this summer relying on wind and solar to keep the lights on in Texas on our hottest days.” This is because there will not be enough traditional generation to meet the expect- ed demand for electricity. Lake continued to explain that ERCOT fully expects to meet demand, IF wind and solar perform. “On our hottest days, under a certain set of circumstances, we may not have enough on-demand dispatchable generation to cover the gap between when the sun sets, we lose the solar and when our wind generation picks up”. The time of most concern for shortages is now the time when solar goes offline after the sun sets, which is around 9 p.m. in the summer.
Speaking to the reliability of the grid, ERCOT CEO Pablo Vegas compared it to a car. “It’s ready to run,” he said. “It’s going to be reliable. However, we’re asking it to go farther without adding more reliable fuel.” Vegas warned that there could still be calls for conservation, as there were last summer, and en- couraged the public’s continued cooperation.
I want to assure you that our members will not face high rates because of energy shortages. There could be slight variations in the Power Cost Adjustment portion of your bill, but we contract for wholesale power, and have the rates locked in for what should be enough power to see you through another hot summer. Plus, our solar arrays are scheduled for commissioning to produce electric energy before we hit the peak usage months of July, August, and September. This will provide an additional 11 Megawatts of power. According to ERCOT, 1 Megawatt of electricity can power about 200 Texas homes during periods of peak demand. So, we will have enough for about an extra 2,200 homes as a cushion.
The point is that you don’t need to be worried that your rates are going to go up drastically, or that Rio Grande will have power shortages this summer. That’s not to say that there couldn’t be transmission out- ages. We have no control over anything but our distribution grid. What we do control are the rates, and the amount of energy we contract for, and those items are covered. We’ve got your back.