ERCOT needs to acknowledge climate change is putting strain on power grid, activists say

DALLAS - Top Texas energy officials discussed the conditions that put the power grid in jeopardy twice this week.

They got an earful from activists who say not enough is being done.

With the power grid stable, the nervy week was front and center Thursday when the Public Utility Commission — the agency that oversees ERCOT — held a regularly scheduled meeting.

But it was no laughing matter for environmental groups who read notes from concerned Texans and say more should have been done.

"The time for leadership on energy efficiency and reducing demand was right after the winter store," said Dave Cortez with the Sierra Club Lone Star Chapter. "And then it was during the legislative session, and it’s been every day and week since that was the best time for it."

"I think in my opinion it is your responsibility to let people know how the world actually works, that climate change is here," said Craig Nazor with the Sierra Club. "It’s bad that we have to reduce demand."

Twice this week on Monday and Wednesday, ERCOT called on Texans to voluntarily cut back on power usage. The move was meant to conserve energy and avoid rolling blackouts.

"We understand. We heard the comments this morning," said Kristi Hobbs with ERCOT. "We understand that this is an impact on the consumers of Texas. And I want you to understand that’s a decision we don’t take lightly." 

Call for Texans to conserve electricity helped avoid rolling blackouts, ERCOT says

Conditions were extremely tight Wednesday afternoon with high temps continuing.

ERCOT says more coal and gas units were offline than expected and wind and solar was lower too.

"We saw a couple of units, thermal generation units, that were forced off due to mechanical failure," Hobbs said.

At one point, the grid fell within around 100 megawatts of entering emergency territory.

ERCOT used a different strategy. It was one of the changes made after the 2021 winter storm to deploy more power before activating emergency alerts. 

At least one commissioner believes that may need to be expanded in the future. But officials also frequently pointed to the success of the grid despite having to ask people to conserve power.

"Over the last 30 days, we have set eight all-time records. Is that accurate?" asked Commissioner Will McAdams. 

"That’s correct," Hobbs said.

"That’s like the equivalent of playing eight Super Bowls, and we have won 8 times. Still not self-congratulating, but my point is that we could easily surpass 80 gigawatts of load on this system by the end of the summer," McAdams said. "And we will combat that and cope with it, and we have the tools to do that."

While commissioners talked about the record heat we have been seeing, there was not a focus on climate change during the discussion.

Critics say that needs to be central to future planning as we see more extremes in coming years.