Record electricity demand could tax this power grid
David Wagman | March 06, 2019The Electric Reliability Council of Texas (ERCOT) said it expects record electric use this coming summer and an increased chance of energy alerts.
ERCOT released its preliminary Seasonal Assessment of Resource Adequacy (SARA) for the summer season (June to September).
ERCOT President and CEO Bill Magness said, "In all of the scenarios studied, we identified a potential need to call an energy alert at various times this summer."
ERCOT’s current planning reserve margin is a historically low 7.4% even as electric demand in the region continues to grow. Between 2016 and March 2019, ERCOT set 16 new monthly peak demand records and new all-time system-wide peak demand records in 2016 and 2018.
Total resource capacity for the upcoming summer is expected to be 78,154 MW. The preliminary summer SARA report includes a 74,853 MW summer peak load forecast based on normal summer peak weather conditions for 2003 to 2017.
The SARA report focuses on the availability of sufficient operating reserves to avoid emergency actions such as deployment of voluntary load reduction resources. It uses an operating reserve threshold of 2,300 MW to indicate the risk that an Energy Emergency Alert Level 1 (EEA1) may be triggered during the time of the forecasted seasonal peak load.
ERCOT said that when it declares an alert, it can tap additional resources that are available only during scarcity conditions. These resources include demand response products. These are resources that are normally set aside to provide operating reserves (including contracted load reduction from some industrial facilities), additional generation or imports from neighboring regions and voluntary calls for conservation.
This is strange. Coal plants have been closing in Texas, and yet they are concerned about supplies.
https://www.kut.org/
“It looks like we may have already crossed the threshold where we have more wind capacity than we do coal capacity,” Rhodes said.
They better hope the wind blows.
https://www.mrt.com/
https://www.houstonc
If Texas starts to experience rolling black-outs and the like during some heat wave, they may not be too happy with the ERCOT folks.
So, there's an electricity shortage in the summer, because there's too much sunlight (= you need to run the A/C more).
Uhm, solar panels?
I mean, how insane is it to burn coal or other stuff to run the A/C? You know, fight sunlight / heat by burning stuff, when you could just power the A/C with that same sunlight.
I am always amazed that these large companies use fear to make their profits and the public fall for it every time. Has anyone else noticed how they fill your mind with 'lack of supply' and promptly shove up the price within a few weeks. And it is always a source of energy they use to garner more money from your hard hit pocket.
Like insurances, they sell you fear and a possibility of 'What If".