After several days when triple-digit temperatures tested the ability of the Texas electric grid to keep power flowing, another round of extreme heat threatens the state.
The manager of the state’s electric grid, the Electric Reliability Council of Texas, known as ERCOT, said Friday that it expected to have enough power to meet weekend demand for the latest hot spell. Temperatures of 100 degrees are forecast every day for the next week in Dallas, Abilene and Lubbock, and in the upper 90s in many other areas.
Earlier in the week ERCOT, which manages the grid for 26 million customers, or 90 percent of the state, asked consumers to voluntarily reduce electricity use to avoid rolling blackouts, as demand at times nearly reached the system’s maximum production capacity.
Texas largely operates its grid independently from the rest of the country, and it has long resisted building more connections with other states to balance electricity supplies.
