Free Republic

Earlier this week Texas grid operator ERCOT (Electric Reliability Council of Texas) asked residents to reduce energy usage amid a sweltering heat wave to avoid rolling blackouts. ERCOT manages electric power to more than 26 million Texas customers and represents 90% of the state’s electric load, according to the company. Temperatures soared to 115+ degrees with the heat index in parts of Texas on Thursday amid an excessive heat warning. ERCOT issued the voluntary conservation notice due to extreme temperatures, forecasted high demand and lower reserves due to low wind generation. ... The wind turbines aren’t producing enough energy. Texas...

President Donald Trump signed an executive order on May 1 last year prohibiting bulk power system equipment from foreign companies in the U.S. grid, citing security concerns. The U.S. Department of Energy noted that under the current rules, contracts are awarded to the lowest bidder when it comes to bulk power system procurement, and that creates a “vulnerability that can be exploited by those with malicious intent.” U.S. Secretary of Energy Dan Brouillette said that it is imperative that “the bulk-power system be secured against exploitation and attacks by foreign threats.” Analysts believe this means that the United States will...

After winter storms continued to barrage the state Tuesday night, officials with the Electric Reliability Council of Texas (ERCOT), the body overseeing the grid that serves 90 percent of the state’s homes, couldn’t offer a timeline for when power for every Texan would be restored. Over the long weekend, the council had advised local utilities to shed energy use with rolling outages in order to maintain the reliability of the electric system after a surge in demand, or otherwise risk uncontrolled blackouts that will take longer to reverse. Some four million homes in the state had been left in the...

During the recent heat wave in Texas, the Electricity Reliability Council of Texas (ERCOT), the operator of the electric grid covering most of the state, set a new record for electricity use when demand for electricity reached 69.8 gigawatts (GW) between 4:00 p.m. and 5:00 p.m. on August 10. ERCOT has been able to handle this extremely high demand without any system emergencies. In its summer 2015 reliability assessment, the North American Electricity Reliability Corporation (NERC) had forecasted a higher reserve margin for Texas's electric grid this summer (16.24%) compared with previous years (14.98% in 2014). Reserve margins reflect the...

The booming oil and gas industry in the Permian Basin has created a voracious demand for power in West Texas, one that the grid is struggling to keep pace with, a Texas grid manager said Thursday. “Growth out in the far West is 20 to 25 percent year over year. It has just exploded and it is all oil field load,” said Brad Jones, vice president of commercial operations for the Electric Reliability Council of Texas, which manages the grid for most of Texas. Jones was one of several speakers at a morning panel at the IHS CERAWeek energy summit...