The Electric Reliability Council of Texas (ERCOT) said it expects the state’s power grid will meet demands assuming typical winter conditions.
ERCOT’s forecast peak demand is 67,398 megawatts (MW) during the winter season of December 2022 through February 2023, according to its Seasonal Assessment of Resource Adequacy report released on Tuesday (pdf). The estimate is based on average weather conditions at the time of peak demands in the winters of 2007 through 2021.
State regulators and ERCOT have been working on adding resources to bolster supply after a February 2021 storm left more than 4.5 million Texans without power and led to 246 deaths.
The upcoming winter’s peak demand base increased by 5,000 MW over the previous year but falls short of the 76,819 MW peak demand reached on Feb. 16, 2021 (pdf). In an extreme scenario similar to 2021, the state’s grid could end up 9,000 MW in the red….