On the third week of April, the ERCOT caused surprise when it asked people to cut down power consumption. For the uninitiated, ERCOT stands for the Electric Reliability Council of Texas.
The ERCOT’s appeal to reduce the pressure on the power grid in Texas, on a rather temperate day, made several natives worried. The February 2021 winter storms caused outages across almost the entirety of Texas as well as brought the ERCOT-supervised electricity grid to the verge of collapse.
Usually, the Texas power plant maintenance month is April. There was slightly more offline power generation for maintenance due to the February storm. That played a part in a situation where the supply of and the demand for electricity almost intersected.
The situation has fueled worry regarding how ready the grid is for the summer heat. On the other hand, the deep freeze of February has also caused a demand in the state legislature for more gas-fired power plants to use the power in an emergency. The demand came after Berkshire Hathaway’s offer.
