Why is ERCOT asking us to conserve electricity? Here’s what we know – KPRC Click2Houston

HOUSTON – ERCOT admitted the majority of lost reserve electricity generation on Monday was due to unscheduled maintenance issues.

ERCOT said 9,691 megawatts of the total loss on Monday was due to a forced outage, meaning it was unplanned and unexpected.

“The number of power plants that were offline for outages was a bit concerning given where we are and the temperatures,” Dr. Joshua Rhodes, a research assistant who studies the Texas Electrical Grid at the University of Austin, said.

Rhodes characterized the issue as a “yellow light,” not yet an emergency, but a potential problem if these power generation issues are not rectified before the hottest days of summer arrives.

Tuesday, KPRC 2 Investigates phoned into an ERCOT conference call that is not designed for media participation but is a public meeting.

A member of the meeting appeared to point out that closed meetings, akin to executive sessions, might be more beneficial to the organization.

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“Yeah, I was going to eject them,” the identified meeting member said after noticing KPRC 2 was on the call.

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