By Scott DiSavino

(Reuters] – Texas power demand is expected to rise from June 10-13 as the economy boosts use and people and businesses turn up their ACs in an effort to avoid a heatwave.

Electric Reliability Council of Texas – which runs the grid that supplies power to more than 26,000,000 customers, or about 90% of Texas’s power load – stated it had sufficient resources to fulfill forecast demand.

Extreme weather brings back memories of 2021’s February freeze, which left millions without heat and water for several days. ERCOT was scrambling to stop a collapse of their grid after a large number of generators were shut down.

AccuWeather had predicted high temperatures for Houston (the largest city in Texas) to rise from 97 F (36.1 Celsius on Thursday to 100 F on Sunday. This compares to a typical high of 91 F in Houston at this time of the year.

ERCOT predicted that usage would increase to 73.880 MW (on Thursday), 75.691MW (on Friday), 75.794MW (on Saturday), 75.794MW (on Sunday), 76.337MW (on Monday) and 76.779MW.

The grid’s record high, 74 820 MW in August 2019, would be topped by Friday and Monday’s peaks.

A megawatt of power can supply approximately 1,000 homes in the United States on any given day. However, it is only 200 homes that are available on hot Texas summer days.

Power prices at ERCOT North Hub (which includes Dallas) rose nearly four weeks to $106 per megawatt-hour for Thursday, from $96 on Wednesday, despite record demand.

ERCOT projected that peak demand would rise to 77.317 MW in the summer, due to economic growth. New solar and wind plants built in the last year by grid will boost resources this summer to 91.392 MW. (Graphic: Texas power demand to soar to record high this year Texas power demand to soar to record high this year – https://graphics.reuters.com/TEXAS-POWER/ERCOT/gkplgzymyvb/chart.png)