SAN ANTONIO, Texas — This summer, as Texas continues to break records for power demand, we will likely see a lot of close calls as demand comes very close to the available power supply.
It looks like a close call when the lines on the power grid operator’s graph for power demand and supply almost touch.
“It is tighter than we probably like to see,” said Joshua Rhodes of the Webber Energy Group at the University of Texas at Austin.
Yet, it is not unusual either in the past or for this summer. Texas’s energy market is set up so that there is not a lot of surplus power available. That often means the available supply is just above the demand needed.
“I wouldn’t call these numbers outrageous for a Texas summer. Demand typically grows every single summer,” Rhodes said. “We generally set new peak demand records every summer.”
The bigger problem is not if there will be enough power, but if there is enough money to cover big bills as people try to keep cool in the high heat.
“If you have trouble paying your bills, a lot of times what people do in that situation is they really try to jack the thermostat up to reduce usage,” said Doug Lewin, the president of Stoic Energy. “That can be very dangerous on these very hot days.”
Those bills are likely already arriving after a hotter than normal spring. They will keep coming through the summer. CPS Energy encourages customers to reach out for assistance programs and payment options before power bills burn through their wallets.
We are likely to continue to set records for demand this summer. If we do have outages because there is more demand than supply, we are not looking at a three-day outage like we saw in February 2021 during the winter storm. Power will likely be off for 30 minutes to an hour.
“We actually haven’t had outages in the summer,” Lewin said. “So the system is very much built for the summertime.”
You can help keep the demand for power down by waiting until after 7 p.m. to cook, do laundry and use other large appliances.