Texans asked to reduce electricity use after six power plants go down 

The Electric Reliability Council of Texas on Friday asked consumers in Texas to conserve electricity until the weekend was over. This was due to 6 power plans going down unexpectantly.

Texans were asked to set their thermostats to 78 degrees or above between 3 p.m. and 8 p.m. last weekend and to avoid using large appliances at home during those same times.

ERCOT did not say why the plants unexpectedly tripped offline. All reserve power was operating to support the grid, the agency said. The power plant failures led to a loss of about 2,900 megawatts of electricity, which is enough to power more than 580,000 homes.

It is essential that Power grids keep supply and demand in balance consistently. As Texas’s grid has fallen below its safety margin of excess supply, the grid operator has taken additional precautions to avoid blackouts. The first precaution is to ask the public to cut back on their electricity use.

April and May are referred to as “shoulder months” in the energy world. That’s the time of year when power plants go offline in order to conduct necessary maintenance and other repairs before the hot summer months.

ERCOT, however, has recently told multiple power generation companies to delay maintenance on their equipment so the grid could keep up with the hotter-than-usual temperatures recently, which in turn leads to elevated demand for power when Texans crank their air conditioners.

Friday’s power plant outages were unrelated to the recent maintenance delays, an ERCOT spokesperson said.

In February 2021, millions of people in Texas went without power whilst dealing with freezing temperatures.