It was just a little over a year ago that Texas power failed due to the overwhelming demand during a deep freeze in the state. After hearings and investigations, the Electric Reliability Council of Texas (ERCOT) swore that they had fixed the problem. But on Sunday, they made a plea for Texans to conserve power again and warned of possible rolling blackouts, reported the Dallas Morning News.
Texas, unlike the rest of the 49 states, operates on its own power grid, making it impossible to generate more power than what the existing companies in the state can provide. While other states can borrow power from each other, Texas has essentially secede from the power grid in the rest of the country.
"A projected reserve capacity shortage with no market solution available," the company said in a statement while begging for energy conservation. The greatest load is expected between 2 p.m. CDT and 8 p.m.
In May, ERCOT announced that they were well prepared for summer and generation capacity is expected to be sufficient to handle the demands "under normal system conditions," reported the Austin American Statesman.
ERCOT provides about 90 percent of the state's power. “I think the longer the finger-pointing goes on, the less likely we are to having meaningful solutions that are implemented,” said Bruce Bullock, Director of Southern Methodist University’s Maguire Energy Institute to Spectrum News 1. “Right now, we have somewhat of a circular firing squad going on, with various parties blaming various other parties, which does very little to solve the problem."
Yet, when the "circular firing squad" ended, ERCOT still couldn't guarantee power.
