ERCOT Implements Rolling Blackouts in West and Central Texas as Providers Urge Conservation
For at least the next 48 hours, both ERCOT and SPP (Southwest Power Pool), are urging their electrical customers to conserve power in the wake of record high winter usage across Texas.
As of 1:30am Monday morning, ERCOT implemented rolling blackouts in various parts of their service area, including West Texas and Austin. The rolling blackouts are scheduled to last through at least 10:30am on Monday. However, one service provider AEP Texas, says the rolling blackouts may continue through at least Tuesday.
Tahoka's Lyntegar Electric Co-op says they had to disconnect about 1,980 meters across Gaines, Dawson, Borden and Martin counties, to comply with ERCOT’s directive.
South Plains Electric Co-op has also implemented rolling blackouts in the Rolling Plains portion of their service area (east, of the eastern half of their Crosby and Garza counties service areas), at ERCOT's directive. SPEC has not said how many customers have been affected.
AEP Texas is also implementing rolling blackouts at ERCOT's directive. Power outages in Abilene, San Angelo, and other parts of their service area.
ERCOT says that as of Monday at 6am, the most amount of power shed from the grid was 10,500 megawatts, which is enough electricity for about two million homes.
However, ERCOT also stated that 30,000 megawatts of generation capacity has been forced off the grid for various reasons. The reduced generation capacity has been noted on ERCOT website with 66,000 MW of capacity dropping to about 53,000 MW between 2am-6:30am.
ERCOT, and the Southwest Power Pool (SPP), which is the part of the regional electric grid that Lubbock Power & Light is still on before transitioning to ERCOT in June, are both urging customers to conserve power for the next two days. Don’t run high-use appliances like washers, dryers and dishwashers, and if you can, drop down the heating in your dwelling by at least one or two degrees.
As of Monday, 5am, the Southwest Power Pool declared they are in: Energy Emergency Alert Level 1: Declared when all available resources have been committed to meet obligations, and SPP is at risk of not meeting required operating reserves.
ERCOT is currently in Energy Emergency Alert Level 3; with rolling blackouts implemented across the ERCOT service area.