SAN ANTONIO — The Electricity Reliability Council of Texas or ERCOT is continuing to ask San Antonians and power-users across Texas to conserve power because of this week's extreme heat.
The operator of the Texas grid says there could be potential for rolling blackouts.
CPS Energy gave an update Monday afternoon on ERCOT's request for statewide voluntary conservation and the latest information. The agency urged conservation and repeated city resources to beat the heat.
The head of the utility, Rudy Garza, said while they were watching the load carefully, they have a gameplan to react quickly if things escalate.
"We're asking everybody," he said about power-conservation efforts. "Every megawatt, every kilowatt hour counts on days like today, and we are hopeful that we will get through unscathed. If everybody works together, we'll be able to manage through it."
If you need more information about the city’s cooling centers you can call 3-1-1. Any senior who is 60 years or older and is a San Antonio resident can get a box fan free of charge if there’s a critical need.
In a series of tweets from CPS Energy, the company says they should have enough power to meet demand, but they’re still asking that folks conserve energy.
The related video above was originally published June 23, 2022.
That request includes businesses from 2 p.m. Until 8 p.m. Monday evening.
ERCOT says we could see rolling blackouts during that time, but they don’t anticipate any system-wide outages.
ERCOT budgets a reserve amount of electricity they can rely on when there’s more demand than supply. That six hour window with not enough reserve could create an energy emergency alert.
That’s when certain procedures are followed, like rolling blackouts, to prevent system-wide outages. ERCOT says the reason for such high demand is the triple digit temperatures we’ve seen throughout the state recently.
It was a hot weekend for Texans, with demand breaking yet another all time record on Friday of 78418 megawatts.
CPS Energy is now asking folks to follow their Yellow Day conservation tips, which means avoid using big appliances like your oven or dishwasher.
And if you can, raise your thermostat so your air conditioner doesn’t come on as often.
For more tips visit cpsenergy.com.
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