Photo by Samantha BryantThe Electric Reliability Council of Texas, the electric grid operator and manager of the wholesale electric market in the state, announced March 1 the organization is preparing to ensure there is adequate capacity during peak electricity usage times during the summer following predictions that once again, Texas will have a hotter than normal summer.
ERCOT's preliminary summer assessment takes into account the National Weather Service's three-month outlook, which calls for above-normal temperatures for Texas this summer, although not as extreme as those of 2011.
"Assuming we get a somewhat hotter than normal summer, and that we have normal generator outages, we expect things to be tight, but we do not expect to do rolling outages," said Kent Saathoff, vice president of Grid Operations and System Planning.
The Seasonal Assessment of Resource Adequacy, an ERCOT report that is released quarterly, examines the spring and gives a preliminary assessment of summer conditions that includes the weather, power plants status and the impact of factors such as economic activity and drought.
