The Electric Reliability Council of Texas (ERCOT) has issued a Voluntary Conservation Notice to customers.
The notice is due to continued low wind-power generation and high demand.
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The agency is asking consumers and businesses to safely reduce their electricity use as much as possible Saturday from 3 p.m. to 9 p.m.
“Similar to yesterday, today’s conservation appeal does not indicate ERCOT is experiencing emergency conditions at this time. Current forecasts are showing a potential to enter emergency operations this evening because of expected low wind-power generation and high demand,” a release from CenterPoint Energy said on the matter.
Consumers can help the ERCOT grid by conserving energy, especially during peak hours of 3 p.m. to 9 p.m. Please conserve electricity by:
- Raising your thermostat by a degree or two, if safe to do so.
- Avoid using large appliances, such as washers/dryers and dishwashers.
- Turn off and unplug non-essential lights and appliances.
- Set pool pumps to run early morning or overnight; shut off during peak hours.
“If conditions worsen, ERCOT may issue a directive to curtail power delivered to customers, which requires transmission and distribution utilities like CenterPoint Energy to implement controlled outages due to power generation shortfall. Controlled outages are planned emergency measures designed to avoid potentially longer and more widespread power outages for customers,” the release said. “There are three levels of Energy Emergency Alerts (EEA), and controlled outages are only implemented as a last resort to maintain reliability of the electric system, and they are done with the intent to rotate outages in the electric service territory based on system conditions.”
CenterPoint said Houston-area customers should prepare now and have a backup plan in place, especially those who rely on electricity for life-sustaining equipment.