Officials in Texas are urging residents to conserve electricity after numerous fossil fuel plants unexpectedly went offline, despite the cooling summer temperatures. The Texas Electric Reliability Board, responsible for managing the state’s power grid, has called for conservation efforts from 5:00 p.m. to 9:00 p.m. this Tuesday due to a significant number of outages in fossil fuel generators. This supply drop coincides with a period of low wind power, which is typical in West Texas during August. The grid operator, Ercot, may declare an emergency if additional supplies are not available through conservation.
The situation in Texas reflects a growing challenge faced by power grids across the country, wherein fossil fuel generators must compensate for the instability caused by high demand and low renewable energy availability. According to data compiled by Arcus Power’s Nrgstream market service, over 11 gigawatts of supply were reported offline in Texas, marking a 72 percent increase from the previous day. The majority of these outages occurred in thermal plants, including fossil fuel and nuclear generators, as reported by Ercot.
Although the intense heat witnessed during the weekend has subsided, the power grid in Texas remains under tight conditions. The temperature in Dallas is expected to reach 37 degrees Celsius on Tuesday, down from 42 degrees on August 26. Despite the decrease in temperature, power usage is projected to peak at nearly 75 gigawatts, an 11 percent decrease from the record-breaking high of 85.4 gigawatts set on August 10. Surprisingly, Texans were not asked to conserve energy on that day.
This summer marks the first time Texas heavily relies on wind and solar power to meet the state’s energy demands, resulting in a smooth operation for the most part. However, the calm winds in August have disrupted the consistent flow of solar energy during the afternoon, leading to an increase in wind power around sunset.
The unexpected outages have had a significant impact on energy prices. On Tuesday, prices peaked at $449.50 per megawatt-hour in the day-ahead market and skyrocketed to over $2,500 the following night due to the reduced supply.
In conclusion, although the intense summer heat has relented, Texas faces a challenging situation with unexpected outages in fossil fuel generators. This development underscores the need for fossil fuel plants to mitigate variations in renewable energy availability during periods of high demand. Texans are urged to conserve electricity to help stabilize the grid and prevent potential emergencies.