ERCOT, the Electricity Reliability Council of Texas, is asking residents and businesses to reduce electricity use between 3pm and 7pm today and the rest of the week as temperatures in our area reach triple digits.
The request comes following unit outages and the forecast, which continues to call for high temperatures.
"We are expecting the statewide power supplies to be very tight over peak today, primarily due to the forecast for continued temperature extremes which causes higher than normal electricity use, and because of unexpected unit outages," said Kent Saathoff, vice president of grid operations and system planning.
ERCOT asks that people turn off unnecessary lights and appliances between 3pm and 7pm, which are peak usage hours, and delay the use of items such as washers/dryers and other appliances until later this evening.
"If a high electricity demand or loss of additional large generation units causes our reserve power to be below the target threshold, the operators will begin emergency procedures to maintain system reliability," Saathoff said.
