Full Notification

Conservation Needed Tonight, Tomorrow Morning

February 9, 2011 - Consumers and businesses are encouraged to conserve electricity during peak demand hours from 4-8 p.m. tonight and 6-9 a.m. tomorrow to help reduce the risk of electricity emergencies or the need
for rotating outages.


The Electric Reliability Council of Texas (ERCOT), grid operator for the state-wide bulk transmission grid, is forecasting a peak demand of nearly 57,000 megawatts (MW), between 8 and 9 pm, Wednesday, and more than 58,000 MW between 7-8 a.m. on Thursday. Both would surpass the current winter record - 56,334 MW which occurred Feb. 2, between 7 and 8 p.m.

"The most critical times will be this evening and in the morning," said CEO Trip Doggett. "While we project to have enough generation to meet demand, a significant number of generation outages, such as we experienced last week, could change that outlook, so we appreciate your continued support by reducing your energy consumption where possible."

As an added precaution, ERCOT is purchasing additional generation capacity for real-time operations to help maintain reliable delivery of power during this extreme weather event.

All but 1,764 MW of the 7,000 MW of generation capacity unavailable last week during the Feb. 2 grid emergency has been restored.