ERCOT had not yet issued any calls for conservation as of this writing, but a watch was posted on its website back on Monday morning.įor perspective as you view the dashboard, peak demand during last year’s winter storm was 77,000 megawatts.Īs of Thursday morning, ERCOT’s revised its estimated peak demand for Friday morning from 71.8K to 74.6k megawatts.Ĭlick here to watch the grids in real-time. Greg Abbott has made repeated assurances the state’s power grid is ready for this event.ĮRCOT officials have said 99% of power plants have complied with newly implemented weatherization plans. In addition, the duration and severity of this week’s winter weather event is not expected to be as long or as bad as the February freeze of 2021 in which many across the state lost power in dangerously cold conditions.

The timestamp of each dashboard indicates when the information was last updated, according to ERCOT’s website.Īs of Thursday night, ERCOT’s grid conditions were normal and there was enough power to meet the current demand. To learn more, you can find a description for each level under the “Full View” on this chart.Ĭopyright 2022 by KPRC Click2Houston - All rights reserved.HOUSTON – The Electric Reliability Council of Texas, which manages the state’s main power grid, has a dashboard which allows residents to track current conditions and usage. More prolonged outages may also be necessary to balance supply and demand on the grid. When reserves drop below 1,000 megawatts, that would take us to an emergency level 3, and we would be looking at controlled, rotating outages.

anything less would trigger an energy emergency level 2, which means ERCOT could reduce demand on the system by interrupting power from large industrial customers who’ve contractually agreed to have their electricity turned off during an emergency. If the operating reserves drop below 2,300 megawatts and are not expected to recover within 30 minutes, ERCOT would issue an emergency level one alert, meaning there is a risk of controlled outages.Īnother number to watch for is 1,750 megawatts. When the reserves hit 2,300, that’s an indication that things are getting serious. When the electric supply can’t be balanced, that’s when things will change. A post shared by KPRC2 Houston What happens when ERCOT goes into Emergency Mode?Ĭurrently, as of Monday, the grid conditions in Texas are in the green, which means there is enough power to meet the current demand.

Texas power grid map