ERCOT issues conservation appeal for Sunday due to low solar generation, high demand

AUSTIN, Texas – ERCOT and CPS Energy are urging Texans to conserve their energy use on Sunday evening due to low wind potential low solar generation, and high demand.

Officials say people should conserve their energy between 4 p.m. to 9 p.m. and raise their thermostats if safe to do so.

CPS Energy will join also in energy conservation by raising indoor temperatures and turning off lights in non-essential areas across the community.

The service company asks all residents to do their part to help with grid reliability.

This is the fourth day in a row that ERCOT appealed for conservation in evening hours.

Conservation is a widely used industry tool that can help lower demand for a specific period of peak demand time, which is typically late afternoon into the evening hours. Energy-saving tips can be found on the TXANS webpage.

Why the Request to Reduce Usage?

• Extreme Heat. Continued statewide extreme temperatures.
• Record Demand. Texas continues to experience near-record demand due to the heat.
• Wind. Wind generation is forecasted to be lower this afternoon/evening during peak demand time.
• Solar. Solar generation is potentially lower this afternoon before completely going offline at sunset.

Peak Demand

• ERCOT set a new, all-time, unofficial peak demand record of 85,435 MW on August 10, 2023.
• In 2022, the August peak demand was 78,465 MW.
• This summer, ERCOT has set 10 new all-time peak demand records.
• Last summer, ERCOT set 11 new peak demand records with a high of 80,148 MW on July 20.

According to ERCOT, if you are experiencing an outage at this time, it is local in nature and not related to overall grid reliability. Please check with your local electric provider for more information.

Related:

• Ozone Action Day alert issued for Sunday in San Antonio
• CPS Energy encourages customers to conserve energy, declares ‘Yellow Day’ for Friday thru Monday