Electricity manager asks Texans to set thermostats at 78 degrees

DALLAS — On the cusp of summer, the electric power grid manager for most of Texas on Monday issued its second conservation alert since the deadly February blackout, calling on users to dial back energy consumption through Friday to avert an emergency.

The Energy Reliability Council of Texas said many forced generation outages and record June demand have squeezed the power supply.

It appeals to users to switch thermostats to 78 degrees and avoid using large electric appliances until demand decreases late in the day.

T he council predicted a peak demand load on its system of 73,000 megawatts, far above the June record of 69,123 megawatts set between 4 and 5 p.m. on June 27, 2018.

However, as of 2:30 p.m. Monday, 12,178 megawatts of the grid’s 86,862 megawatts of generating capacity was off line, the council said, leaving a razor-thin margin of reserve capacity.

“We will be conducting a thorough analysis with generation owners to determine why so many units are out of service,” Woody Rickerson, council vice president of grid planning and operations, said in a statement. “This is unusual for this early in the summer season.”

Spokeswoman Leslie Sopko said 9,066 megawatts of the idled capacity were from steam-powered generator units fueled by gas, coal or nuclear fission.

“We’re currently seeing three to four times the number of forced thermal (steam-powered) generation outages on our system than we would typically expect to see this time of year,” Sopko said in a telephone conference.