With extreme hot weather driving record power demand across Texas, the Electric Reliability Council of Texas (ERCOT) has issued a Conservation Appeal, asking Texas residents and businesses to voluntarily conserve electricity, Monday, July 11 from 2 to 8 p.m. A Watch for a projected reserve capacity shortage during the same timeframe has also been issued.

Factors driving the need for this important action by customers:

• Record high electric demand. The heat wave that has settled on Texas and much of the central United States is driving increased electric use. Other grid operators are operating under similar conservative operations programs as ERCOT due to the heatwave.
• Low wind. While solar power is generally reaching near full generation capacity, wind generation is currently generating significantly less than what it historically generated in this time period. Current projections show wind generation coming in less than 10 percent of its capacity.

While widespread outages are not expected by ERCOT at this time, the City of Round Rock has a plan in place should a large-scale system outage occur. The City’s Community Risk Reduction team, including the Crisis Response Unit, are also working alongside community partners to ensure Round Rock’s most vulnerable populations are cared for as historically high temperatures persist across the state.

Conservation is a reliability tool ERCOT has deployed more than four dozen times since 2008 to successfully manage grid operations. Conservation Appeals are issued when projected reserves have the potential to fall below 2300 MW for 30 minutes or more.

The Public Utility Commission’s (PUC) Power to Save website provides conservation tips and ways to reduce electricity use during peak times, including turning up your thermostat a degree or two, if comfortable, and postponing running major appliances or pool pumps during afternoon peak hours.