Temperatures have been so high recently the state's energy grid operator, ERCOT, asked Texans to voluntarily cut back on energy - twice in the past few days.
The latest request was Sunday night between 7 p.m. and 10 p.m. NBC 5 spoke to ERCOT President and CEO, Pablo Vegas, about the tools the grid operator can use to keep the lights on for 26 million Texans.
The Voluntary Conservation Notices sent out by ERCOT is one program implemented after the February 2021 winter storm. Vegas says providing the public with more information and operating in a more transparent way was a key takeaway. People can sign up for the notification system here.
"We're not doing it on the brink. We don't want people to think when we issue a weather watch or a conservation call that we're on the brink of outages. That's not the case," said Vegas.
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The conservation notifications are the first tool when ERCOT needs a little more wiggle room between supply and demand. Sunday, they sent out the notifications because several power units across Texas were temporarily offline because of mechanical issues and the grid to the north, the Southwest Power Pool, needed some help and tapped into power plants usually dedicated to Texas.
"What we're doing is we're recognizing that conditions are going to be tight and what we're trying to prevent is a situation where something unexpected happens and then we have a big problem," said Vegas.
The conservation notices and new Weather Watches are part of their TXANS communication program. The program began the last day of May as part of ERCOTs efforts to be more transparent about how the grid was holding up.
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Monday ERCOT issued a Weather Watch, anticipating higher demand with the potential for lower reserves Wednesday through Sunday.
ERCOT, or the Electric Reliability Council of Texas, Inc., is the agency that manages the majority of the state's power grid. On Monday they issued a TXANS Weather Watch warning for Aug. 23-27 due to higher temperatures, higher demand and the potential for lower reserves.
What's different this year is the crucial time for energy demand has changed according to Vegas. In the past, the crucial time was around 4 p.m. and 5 p.m. when people came home from work and used more power. Now, the "risk period" is later in the evening, when it is still steaming hot but the sun is going down. When the sun goes down a large power source, solar panels, become less useful. Sunday around 6% of the state's power came from solar panels.
More than half of the state's energy Sunday came from natural gas. Nuclear, wind, coal, and other power sources filled in the rest.
If there is a supply crunch after the Voluntary Conservation Notice, ERCOT has several more tools to use before a last resort. Vegas tells NBC 5 two key steps are the emergency purchase of power for a "demand response" and then asking transmission companies to lower the voltage on their power lines.
The last resort is a "load shed" or controlled temporary outages. Despite more than ten record-setting demand days this summer, ERCOT has not had to take those drastic steps.
"The first priority is the same every day, every season. That's the reliability of the grid," said Vegas.
ERCOT's grid connects 52,700 miles of transmission lines to 1,100 power generation units.
