ERCOT asks Texans to conserve electricity again Wednesday
ERCOT on Wednesday waited until nearly noon to issue an alert urging people to conserve power.
The state came dangerously close to triggering an emergency response due to the strain on the power grid.
It was the second day this week that the agency managing the power grid issued a conservation alert.
At one point, we were less than 150 megawatts away from issuing emergency alerts that could lead to rolling blackouts. It didn't happen, but it might soon if this keeps up.
RELATED: Call for Texans to conserve electricity helped avoid rolling blackouts, ERCOT says
Another brutally hot Texas day came with an essentially last-minute call for Texans to cut power.
Just before noon, ERCOT asked people to limit electricity use between 2 p.m. and 9 p.m.
It was a much shorter heads up than when officials warned Sunday night that Texans should conserve power Monday.
Doug Lewin is an energy consultant and advocate for clean energy.
"I can't explain it. I don't understand it, and I can't explain it," he said. "Looking at it this morning, if you're going to make a conservation call when things look if you're going to make one for Monday, then you would certainly make one today. Today looked worse than Monday."
ERCOT pointed to cloud cover in West Texas with less wind as well as a higher amount of coal and gas plants being offline.
Although, Lewin says wind is performing okay.
"So I think the biggest difference is thermal power plants, gas and coal power plants that have for whatever reason… And again, it would be really nice if ERCOT would explain what that reason is. ERCOT or the PUC, somebody in state leadership would explain, but it looks like that is the biggest difference between today and Monday," Lewin said.
Despite asking news outlets to spread word of the conservation request, ERCOT would not make anyone available to comment nor did it answer any questions about why more than the usual number of thermal power plants are offline.
"I don't know that's what's causing these thermal outages because again, unfortunately, ERCOT in the PUC are not talking, and they're not telling us why these plants are out," Lewin said. "And again, they need to start answering these questions, so we understand and the public understands what's happening and how much risk there is that."
ERCOT has been operating in a way it says is more conservative after the deadly 2021 winter storm. It’s called on more generators to be ready if needed, but some have raised concerns it could lead more equipment failure.
ERCOT Interim CEO Brad Jones was asked if he shared those concerns. He told the Houston Chronicle Tuesday, "I always get concerned of those types of things. But as of right now, the facts don't support that. Now, I am concerned that there will be more (generation) outages because just the way we're running them this summer. Not even the conservative operations, just how we're running them this summer. It puts a lot of wear and tear on some of these older machines."