HillCo Partner’s subject experts have been closely monitoring the winter weather situation. Below is the status of what the team is seeing currently:
ERCOT has performed admirably over the last 48 hours during one of the coldest periods in recent memory. The graph below shows the overnight demand and supply picture, a nearly flat line for both. Power reserves exceed demand by over 10,000 MWs throughout despite contributions from wind turbines declining significantly as the front line moves out of the state.
Demand has ebbed to 65,000 MWs, down from yesterday’s high of approximately 75,000 MWs. This is due to the weekend drop in demand caused by businesses closing and the overall holiday slowdown. Numerous outages were reported in the last 48 hours, but all were local issues and not related to ERCOT-wide shortages. Temperatures are expected to rise each day as we move through the holidays, further reducing demand.
Power prices have moderated with the decline in load.
Natural gas deliveries were challenged in the Atmos service territory near DFW as line pressures dropped. The cause of that decline in pressure was not disclosed.