Even though a punishing heat wave across Texas drove record high power demand in recent days, Texans avoided rolling blackouts Monday after the Electric Reliability Council of Texas requested that they cut back on their energy use. And an ERCOT spokesperson told The Texas Tribune on Monday that the grid operator does not expect rolling blackouts this week.
ERCOT, the state’s power grid operator, asked Texans to turn up their thermostats and postpone running major appliances between 2 p.m. and 8 p.m. Monday. ERCOT also called on large electric customers to lower their electricity use. Nearly all industrial-scale Bitcoin miners in the state shut off their machines in response to the call, representing over 1% of total grid capacity, Bloomberg News reported.
On Monday, the Electric Reliability Council of Texas set a new unofficial peak record of demand, a spokesperson said. Total power demand reached 78.3 gigawatts, surpassing the previous record of 78.2 set on July 8. Almost half of 1 gigawatt — or 500 megawatts — of demand dropped off between 1:56 and 2 p.m., the spokesperson said. ERCOT sent out a request late Sunday asking Texans to cut back their energy use starting at 2 p.m. Monday.
