🏭 ERCOT, Oncor & you: Part 1

Raise your hand if you’re growing weary of the calls to conserve energy. 🙋‍♂️

  • Sunday marked the 4th day in a row ERCOT issued a conservation warning.

🖼️ The big picture: This week I’m going to dive in on this topic to give you a clearer understanding of our energy grid.

  • As smart homeowners we can benefit from a basic understanding of the grid.

⚙️ How it works: Today, let’s look at the role of ERCOT.

👉 The United States is made up of three electric grids.

  • The Western Interconnection, the Eastern Interconnection and the Texas Interconnection.
  • States that are interconnected can share electricity in times of need.
  • Texas is basically an island.

👉 ERCOT is a non-profit corporation overseen by the Texas Public Utility Commission and Texas Legislature.

  • ERCOT is tasked with managing the flow of electric power to 90% of Texas —> 26 million customers.
  • ERCOT’s most critical job is ensuring the stability of the grid.

🥊 Reality check: Despite a lot of criticism, ERCOT’s recent strategies have helped avoid emergency operations this summer.

  • Even though this summer we’ve seen 10 new all-time peak demand records.

🧊 However, during the freeze of February 2021, we narrowly escaped disaster.

  • On February 15, the grid reached an unstable frequency for four minutes and 23 seconds.
  • 9 minutes at that frequency would have led to a grid collapse.
  • That would have required a “black start” to the grid, which would have kept many people without power for weeks — possibly months!

✅ For your Smart Homeowner list

  • If you want to stay informed, search ERCOT in your app store and download their app.
  • Tune in the rest of the week to learn more. 😁

Best,

Travis

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