HOUSTON (Reuters) -The operator of Texas’s power grid on Sunday called on state residents for the second time this year to conserve energy, warning of potential rolling blackouts amid predictions for record-high temperatures on Monday.
The state faces a “potential reserve capacity shortage with no market solution available,” the Electric Reliability Council of Texas (ERCOT) said in an operating notice on its website, adding that it was issuing an energy emergency alert that advised of the potential for rolling blackouts.
ERCOT, which oversees power to more than 26 million customers, had assured residents earlier this year that it had enough reserves to meet demand after millions of people suffered without power through a deep freeze in early 2021 for several days.
Temperatures across the state hit records on Sunday, with 105 degrees Fahrenheit (40.6 degrees Celsius) recorded at Houston’s Bush Intercontinental Airport, surpassing the record of 101 F set in 1909, according to the U.S. National Weather Service (NWS).
The NWS also warned of excessive or dangerous heat levels for central and east Texas on Monday, with temperatures exceeding 100 F.
ERCOT asked residents to conserve electricity between 2 p.m. and 8 p.m., saying demand could reach 79,934 megawatts (MW) on Monday and 80,104 MW on Tuesday, not far from Monday’s expected 80,200 MW of available reserves.
That power use would top the current preliminary all-time high of 78,204 MW on July 8.
One megawatt can power around 1,000 U.S. homes on a typical day, but only about 200 homes on a hot summer day in Texas.
The grid operator has called for more power from suppliers and has asked large industrial consumers to reduce their energy use.
It last called for conservation in May, during an earlier heat wave that drove up prices to more than $4,000 a megawatt hour after six generators tripped offline.
The state’s day-ahead market has several hours on Monday afternoon listed at more than $1,000 a megawatt hour (MWh) and one at over $2,000, which is more than twice the peak price on Sunday.
Despite the sky-high day-ahead prices over the weekend, next-day power at the ERCOT North Hub, which was traded on Friday, slid to $157 per MWh for Monday from a two-week high of $193 for Friday. The ERCOT North Hub includes Dallas.
That compares with an average of $69 so far this year, $141 in 2021 and a five-year (2017-2021) average of $56. The average in 2021 was inflated by price spikes to $9,000 per MWh during the February freeze.
(Reporting by Eileen Soreng in Bengaluru, Gary McWilliams in Houston and Scott DiSavino in New York; Editing by Uttaresh.V and Susan Fenton)
