AUSTIN, Texas — The Electric Reliability Council of Texas (ERCOT) manages the electric power grid for most of Texas.
ERCOT uses tools such as weather forecasts and power plant outage reports to schedule how much power will be needed throughout the day.
Woody Rickerson, vice president of system planning and weatherization for ERCOT, said the rain this spring kept the need for electricity lower than last year.
“Last spring was a very unusual spring in that it was dry and hot early on in the summer. We've had a good, wet spring this year, so that has damped down one of the temperature problems that we may have. And even though we are going to go through some period of pretty hot weather here, including today and the next few days, the overall look this summer is still expected to be more like a normal summer,” Rickerson said on Tuesday.
Rickerson said wind will be key to having enough electricity for the state during high demand.
“The assessment of resource adequacy for high demand days is going to be very dependent on wind, and that's just the reality of where we are. Every day, we'll have to look at what the wind is doing,” Rickerson said.
Rickerson said power from solar farms helps the system during evening hours when demand for power increases. He said the demand doesn’t drop fast enough, though.
“Now we're a little more worried about maybe the 9 p.m. hour. The load [demand] will drop from 5 p.m. to 9 p.m., but the solar is dropping more than the load drops,” Rickerson said. “And so, that makes your tightest hour be later in the day. So the key takeaway here, like I said, is that wind production continues to be a very, very important factor every day this summer.”
ERCOT inspectors are checking to see how power companies have weatherized for the summer heat.
“We're also anticipating inspecting a higher number of resources this summer in excess of around 500 resources, which is also ahead of pace for our 3-year obligation cycle,” said Pablo Vegas, ERCOT's president and CEO.
Those summer weatherization inspections will run through September.
ERCOT inspectors have already performed 1,098 inspections throughout the state, ERCOT meeting documents show.