Unexpected power generator outages forces utilities to ask consumers to conserve

SAN ANTONIO (KTSA News) — It’s early in the summer and ERCOT — along with power utilities — are already asking power consumers to save energy.

And it could last all week.

Why?

ERCOT explained that a large amount of power generation is offline in the state due to unexpected issues, likening it to a tire going out on a car and needing to be repaired.

More than 12,000 megawatts is offline — nearly all of it unexpected — as of Monday afternoon because of these generation issues.

About 80 percent of that is tied to thermal generation, the rest connected to renewable power generation being offline.

ERCOT officials told reporters Monday afternoon that it does not know why so many power generation plants are undergoing unexpected repairs at this time, but they are investigating.

Along with plants being offline, ERCOT said wind and solar power output is below what would be expected for a typical Texas summer day, further limiting the system’s capacity.

ERCOT said its conservation request to power providers is in effect indefinitely, at least through Friday, though the utilities will be the ones to give more direct guidance on local needs.

CPS Energy is requesting its customers to conserve power through at least 7 p.m. Monday.  NBU is extending its conservation request to include 3 p.m. to 7 p.m. Tuesday.  The City of San Antonio is opening cooling centers amid this request, most will begin opening Tuesday.

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