DALLAS — An early heatwave across much of Texas this weekend has led to the largest demand ever for electricity.
The Electric Reliability Council of Texas' grid conditions showed that the state saw 75,083 megawatts of demand at 5:20 p.m. Sunday, which is the highest ever.
The previous record for electricity demand in ERCOT's system was set in August 2019 at around 74,800 megawatts.
At 5:20 p.m. Sunday, there was enough supply (84,780 megawatts) to meet the record demand.
Much of the state is feeling the heat earlier than normal this year. The North Texas area has already seen two days of temperatures in the triple digits, which is nearly a month early. DFW typically sees its first triple-digit day on July 1.
Last week, ERCOT had predicted record electricity demand for this weekend and extended an operating condition notice due to extreme hot weather.
Power outages have been reported throughout the North Texas amid the heatwave.
A spokesperson for Oncor told WFAA that the outages have affected around 3,000 customers and have been caused by increased load being put on transformers. The Oncor official also added that the outages are a combination of residents increasing their energy use and external heat hitting the equipment.
The spokesperson said the outages are lasting longer than usual but that crews are working on repairs.