With temperatures over 38 degrees in many parts of the state, the Texas power grid recorded a new energy demand record on Tuesday. It could well happen again on Wednesday.
Despite the heat wave, the Electric Reliability Council of Texas has not yet asked people to conserve electricity. That’s a big change from 2023, when extreme weather and fears of low power reserves prompted ERCOT to issue 11 power conservation calls throughout the year.
Grid operators and energy experts cite the rapid growth of solar power and grid-serving batteries as the main reasons why citizens were not asked to save electricity this month.
“We’ve seen significant increases in energy storage resources, solar resources, wind resources, and some increases in gas as well,” Pablo Vegas, CEO of the Electric Reliability Council of Texas, said Tuesday at an ERCOT board meeting. “All of that has helped reduce the shortage.”
In fact, the growth of some of these energy sources has been record-breaking.
With sun and heat beating down, Sunday, Monday and Tuesday brought the three best days for solar power production in the history of the state’s power grid, according to the website Gridstatus.iowhich tracks the performance of regional electricity transmission systems.
On Sunday, the day with the highest solar power production, solar farms in Texas produced 20,832 megawatts of electricity. It should be noted that this figure does not include energy generated by solar panels on the roofs of homes and businesses.
According to ERCOT, 1 megawatt is enough to supply about 200 households with electricity during times of peak demand.
Texas also set new records on Monday and Tuesday for the amount of power provided by large, utility-scale batteries, which could have made the difference between a normal day and an emergency on the power grid.
“The previous storage record was exceeded by 25%,” says Doug Lewin, author of the Texas Energy and Power Newsletter. tweetedWithout them, we would “almost certainly have experienced outages.”
The reason for the rapid increase in solar and battery power in the state’s power grid is quite simple.
Energy demand in Texas has grown rapidly in recent years, and frequent periods of energy shortages provide a business opportunity for solar farms and battery storage that can be quickly built to meet demand.
Hot, sunny days – the very conditions that lead to higher energy consumption – are also the conditions in which solar power is generated. This solar energy can also be used to fill large batteries that feed power back into the grid when the sun sets over solar farms but air conditioning is still running at full blast.
At Tuesday’s meeting, Vegas pointed to other factors that have had a positive impact on the grid recently. Strong evening winds have helped wind power come online at sunset, and natural gas plants have not experienced major outages that could put the grid in a shortage situation.
