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Eyes are on the Electric Reliability Council of Texas and the state's power grid for the duration of this weekend's winter storm.
The power grid operator said earlier this week that expect ample supply to meet power demands this winter. ERCOT issued a Weather Watch for January 24 through 27 due to the incoming weather.
Texans can monitor the power grid in real time and ERCOT has an alert system in place that sends notifications if the grid is seeing high demand or lowered reserves.
How do I monitor the Texas power grid in real-time?
HOUSTON, TEXAS - JANUARY 21: Transmission lines with snow on the ground is shown along the North Sam Houston Parkway near SH249 Tuesday, Jan. 21, 2025, in Houston. (Melissa Phillip/Houston Chronicle via Getty Images)
ERCOT has a live dashboard that offers information on a variety of power-related resources including current demand, current power reserves and the condition of the grid.
As of Saturday morning, the current grid conditions are operating under green, or normal conditions, meaning there is enough power to meet the current demand.
Yellow indicates voluntary power conservation when demand is higher and reserves are lower.
Orange indicates that the grid has the potential to enter emergency operations.
What is an ERCOT Weather Watch?
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Dig deeper:
An ERCOT Weather Watch is an advance notification that is between three and five days ahead of forecasted significant weather with higher electrical demand and a possibility for lower reserves.
What you can do:
Grid conditions are expected to be normal, and there is no current expectation of an energy emergency, but ERCOT officials tell Texans that reducing electricity use, during peak demand times, can help save and lower demand on the grid.
What happens if ERCOT goes into emergency mode?
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ERCOT has three levels of energy emergency indicated by either red or black.
Emergency level 1
A level one emergency is triggered when power reserves fall below 2,500 megawatts and are expected to remain below that threshold for 30 minutes. No controlled outages are expected at level one.
Emergency level 2
Emergency level two is initiated when power reserves fall below 2,000 megawatts and are expected to remain below for 30 minutes. Controlled outages are not expected at this level, but are possible.
Emergency level 3
Emergency level three is when reserves fall below 1,500 megawatts and are expected to remain below for 30 minutes. Under these conditions, controlled outages are happening across residential, commercial and industrial customers.
More information about what happens when ERCOT enters emergency mode can be found here.
The Source: Information in this article was provided by The Electric Reliability Council of Texas, Inc. (ERCOT).