It’s Hot! Sizzling Texas Heat Brings Record Demand for Electricity

Welcome to another sizzling hot Texas summer. The past weekend saw temps reach above 100 degrees, and with the heat index added in it felt like we were one step away from the sun.

It was HOT!

All that heat can only mean one thing -crank up the AC and stay inside. How's ERCOT holding up?

Record Heat in Texas

We are only half way through June and it feels like late July with these temps. KVUE reports that our neighboring city to the south, Austin, had its hottest May on record with 27 of the 31 days recording above average daily high temperatures.

Get our free mobile app

I can only assume that holds the same here in Temple, Belton, and Killeen as well.

Texas Power Grid

The Dangerous heat wave isn't expected to cool down anytime soon, and if you've spent any amount of time in Texas during the summer you know that the worst is yet to come.

According to KENS5, Texas set a new record for electricity demand, surpassing 75,000 megawatts on Sunday at around 5:20pm. The previous record was 74,000 megawatts back in August of 2019.

ERCOT

ERCOT did predict a high demand for electricity early last week and was well prepared to meet the demand with 84,000 megawatts available. Fortunately the record usage was over the weekend when many business building were closed. Otherwise we would be talking about how dangerously close to shut-down we came.

All was not 100% event-free however, as there were some power outages reported in north and central Texas.

With temps continuing to hit the triple digits, many a Texan is concerned about ERCOT's ability to keep up with the demand for electricity. So far so good, but we are just getting started.