The Electric Reliability Council of Texas, or ERCOT, raised eyebrows this week by asking people to reduce power usage, notes Mitchell Ferman, who reports on energy and the economy for The Texas Tribune.
The plea to take strain off the state electric grid, on a relatively temperate day, concerned many Texans. Just two months ago, February’s winter storms forced power outages across most of the state and brought the grid overseen by ERCOT to the brink of collapse.
“April is typically maintenance season for Texas power plants,” Ferman told Texas Standard. “There was a little more generation offline for maintenance because of the winter storm,” he added, leading to a situation in which electric “supply and demand nearly intersected.”
The incident has fueled concern about the grid’s readiness for the heat of the summer, while February’s deep freeze has also led to a push in the Texas Legislature to build additional gas power plants for emergency use after an offer from Warren Buffett’s Berkshire Hathaway company.
Read more in the links above, and listen to the interview with Texas Tribune reporter Mitchell Ferman in the audio player above.
