The Electric Reliability Council of Texas (ERCOT), grid operator for most of Texas, recently released its final Seasonal Assessment of Resource Adequacy (SARA) for this spring and a preliminary outlook for the coming summer showing the electric grid may be strained for energy during the early summer months, the outlook improves by late summer, when more than 2,100 megawatts (MW) from four new natural gas-fired generation resources are slated to begin commercial operations. Peak demand for this summer is expected to exceed 68,000 megawatts (MW). ERCOT’s all-time record peak of 68,305 MW occurred on Aug. 3, 2011, during the hottest summer on record.
The preliminary summer report indicates operating reserves would remain above 3,000 MW with normal generation outages and 2002-2013 average weather patterns. If more extreme weather occurs, especially during a period when a higher-than-average number of generation units are not available, there could be a need for conservation and other progressive steps to protect the grid.