Texans asked to conserve power

 Legal Insurrection:

Texans are being asked to cut their electricity use this weekend after six generating plants fell offline in a heat wave.

Record temperatures have pushed up demand for air conditioning, contributing to soaring wholesale prices this week. The call for residents to conserve came after prices soared to more than $4,000 per megawatt hour (MWH) in Houston briefly on Friday afternoon, from less than $6 MWH earlier.

The Electric Reliability Council of Texas (ERCOT) said six generation plants, providing 2,900 megawatts (MW), tripped offline on Friday afternoon. All of the grid’s generation facilities had resumed operation, Interim ERCOT Chief Executive Brad Jones said in a revised statement.

“We’re asking Texans to conserve power when they can,” Jones said in a statement, asking residents to push up thermostats to 78-degrees Fahrenheit or above (25.5 Celsius) and not run power-consuming appliances during peak hours through the weekend.

Last year, we reported on a similar situation in July. If the Texas grid can’t handle May temperatures, then the summer is going to be long, hot, and dark.

ERCOT officials are making a series of now-familiar pleas.

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I think this is mainly a problem in the big cities.  I live in a rural area of Texas that is served by a coop that seems to function well even in extreme weather. 

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