Texas Power Grid Declares Emergency

The Texas power grid operator resumed "normal conditions" on Thursday after being on emergency mode for three hours on Wednesday evening due to low power reserves. It was the latest close call for the state's power grid, which has been put under significant pressure by a series of heatwaves since the beginning of summer.

The Electric Reliability Council of Texas (ERCOT) declared an Energy Emergency Alert (EEA) Level 2 between 6 and 9 p.m. local time on Wednesday, admitting there was a risk of controlled outages as reserves were too low to meet Texans' demand for power.

According to the energy operator, Texas reached a peak demand on Wednesday of 82,705 MW "driven by extreme heat across the state." The state of emergency allowed power generators to push all available electricity to the grid in order to avoid the worst-case scenario—ordering rotating power blackouts.

"Due to low reserves and a drop in frequency, ERCOT entered directly into EEA 2. To protect the stability of the electric system, ERCOT has access to additional reserve sources only available during emergency conditions," said Pablo Vegas, president and CEO of the council, in a press release.

"High demand, lower wind generation, and the declining solar generation during sunset led to lower operating reserves on the grid and eventually contributed to lower frequency, which precipitated the emergency level 2 declaration."

"At Level 2, ERCOT can reduce demand and ERCOT has three Energy Emergency Alert levels," a statement from San Antonio's CPS Energy said. "At Level 3, ERCOT may use controlled rotating outages as a last resort to protect the grid."

The council successfully avoided using power outages on Wednesday—but the risk of possible blackouts remained high. It has called for Texans to voluntarily conserve energy around 10 times already this summer after setting 10 new peak-demand records.

Though the emergency mode expired at 9 p.m., ERCOT is still encouraging Texans to cut back their energy consumption, and a Weather Watch remains in place until Friday. The Weather Watch notifies users of forecasted significant weather events which can push demand for electricity up while reserves are low.

ERCOT has not ordered rotating power outages since February 2021, during the devastating winter storm which left much of the state in the dark. More than 200 people died during the emergency.

In a written statement to Newsweek, ERCOT wrote: "ERCOT continues to manage a reliability-first approach to grid operations and will continue to keep the public informed on grid operations across our communications channels."

It added: "The Supply and Demand 6-Day Forecast and other dashboards on www.ERCOT.com provide real-time grid information."

According to an exclusive Newsweek poll conducted by Redfield & Wilton Strategies between August 8 and 9 among eligible voters in the state, a total of 34 percent of Texans were dissatisfied (17 percent) or very dissatisfied (17 percent) with ERCOT's performance. A total of 28 percent were very satisfied (8 percent) or satisfied (20 percent).

Some 45 percent of respondents—out of a sample population of 687 residents—believe that there is currently not enough power in the Texas electricity grid to meet the state's demand, compared to 32 percent who believe there is enough power.

Update 9/7/23, 8:45 a.m. ET: This article was updated to include a comment from ERCOT.