ERCOT calls for energy saving in mid-April
Once again, ERCOT had to explain why there were strict power conditions. But this time there was no record heat or cold.
DALLAS – ERCOT officials on Tuesday called for energy savings, despite the fact that temperatures in the state were nowhere near record numbers.
Once again, ERCOT had to explain why there were strict power conditions. But this time there was no record heat or cold.
As North Texans enjoyed an afternoon in the 70s and low 80s, the operator of the state’s power grid asked for energy savings.
“Due to a combination of high disruptions that usually occur in April and higher demand than predicted by a cold front over TX, ERCOT could enter emergencies,” ERCOT said in a tweet just after 4:30 p.m. said.
Around 20:40, ERCOT revoked the request.
It comes two months after a catastrophic failure to keep the lights on and keep homes warm during a historic winter storm shook the Texans’ belief in the strength of the grid to work properly.
ERCOT says it was a combination of an under-predicted number of people using their AC at home and power plants that were normally maintained. An SMU energy expert says this is a case of poor planning by ERCOT.
Many who saw ERCOT’s tweet in which they urged customers to save energy had flashbacks to the prolonged interruptions during the February winter storm that contributed to 125 deaths in Texas.
Bruce Bullock is the director of the Maguire Energy Institute at the SMU Cox School of Business.
“This is the kind of conservation call we usually get in July or August, but certainly not in April,” he said.
Despite the fact that the temperature in the state is not close to record highs, ERCOT says that the call for storage was due to a higher than normal load on the network, partly due to under-forecasting on their part.
Woody Rickerson is the VP of Network Operations for ERCOT. In a media call on Tuesday, he said customers’ interruptions are not ‘expected’, but he explained why the network barely sticks to demand.
Rickerson said a combination of frequent outages for plants being maintained and according to them the unexpected increase in people using their AC units because of a cold front has stalled.
“What we are looking at today is at most a period of four hours where the generation and load, that balancing ability is rather strict than what we normally want to work with,” he said.
“April is usually a pretty good month for that, because it’s relatively mild again,” Bullock said. “However, I would still say it’s another task of poor forecasting.”
ERCOT says the solar-generated energy was also low due to cloud cover.
Some generations have been from the winter storm, but ERCOT says it was a very small amount.
And the wind also dropped, but Bullock says wind is not a big generator during the day.
“I think it’s really raising the heat on this issue in the legislature because it clearly deserves more investigation than it has already done,” he said. “We talked about planning a very unexpected event. It’s a little different animal to look forward to.”
Asked if a call for custody could be made again in a few weeks, the ERCOT VP said it was a possibility.
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