Power demand has crested in Texas after officials asked homes and businesses to conserve, easing the threat of blackouts in America’s second most populous state.
Electrical use in the state peaked at about 78.3 gigawatts at 5 p.m. local time, down from an earlier estimate of more than 80 gigawatts, according to the Electric Reliability Council of Texas, the state’s main grid operator. Residents and businesses appeared to heed the state’s call to limit power use, giving the grid operator enough of a cushion to avoid more drastic measures.
Power grids around the globe are facing severe tests this summer as climate change drives temperatures to record highs and Russia’s war in Ukraine has strained fuel supplies. In the US, officials have warned that a vast swath of the nation, from the Great Lakes to the West Coast, is at risk of blackouts. Texas has already set several records for power demand this year.
The region is facing “the most serious kind of heat,” with the worst conditions likely to remain across central Texas through Tuesday, according to Andrew Quigley, a National Weather Service meteorologist. Temperatures should drop from being 100 to 110 degrees closer to the upper 90s to low 100s later in the week. “There will be slight improvement, but the operative word there is slight.”
The call for conservation lasts from 2 p.m. to 8 p.m. local time, according to Ercot. A gigawatt is enough to power about 200,000 Texas homes.
Power prices dipped to an average of $96.77 a megawatt hour in the real-time market at 4:30 p.m. local time. Previously, prices in the day-ahead market had soared above $2,000 a megawatt-hour.
Temperatures across Texas, including in Austin, San Antonio, Waco, and Abilene could set records for the date, and Houston could get close with a high of 102 Fahrenheit, according to the US Weather Prediction Center.
Almost all of the major cryptocurrency mining operations have scaled down operations, allowing about 1 gigawatt of capacity to flow back to the grid, according to the Texas Blockchain Association. Crypto mining has taken off in Texas in the past year, leading to concerns that the power-intensive operations would tax the state’s energy systems.
Texas’s power grid remains under scrutiny more than a year after the system collapsed during a winter storm, leaving much of the state without power for days. More than 240 people died, and the true economic costs topped $50 billion. Officials enacted a raft of reforms following the crisis, but critics warn the system remains vulnerable.
