AUSTIN, Texas — Triple-digit heat across Texas on Wednesday pushed electricity demand to what appeared to be a new all-time high, surpassing the state’s previous record set last summer.
The prior peak demand record was 85,508 megawatts, set Aug. 10, 2023. On Wednesday, demand climbed to about 91,000 megawatts as temperatures soared statewide, including a high of 106 degrees at Camp Mabry.
A spokesperson for the Electric Reliability Council of Texas said the record-setting numbers from Wednesday were not yet official and that it will take time to get the most accurate reading. Even so, demand appeared to set a record and did not trigger a conservation alert.
The grid had thousands of megawatts in capacity available, meaning it could handle the spike.
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Ed Hirs, an energy fellow at the University of Houston, credited growth in renewable generation and storage for helping meet demand. “We have had fabulous growth in solar farms and wind farms and short-run battery capacity… without solar and without wind, the Texas grid and the Texas economy are just absolutely dead in the water,” Hirs said.
Hirs also said electricity prices are being driven up by the number of data centers being built. “The governor has done an about-face on data centers after supporting them and their predecessors, in particular cryptocurrency miners,” he said. “Especially since residential consumers pay almost double the rates and don’t get the tax benefits.”
In a tweet posted Thursday, Gov. Greg Abbott said data centers must pay their own way, bring their own power and reduce electricity costs.
ERCOT said in a statement that it operates “an energy-only wholesale market,” meaning generators are paid the wholesale rate for the power they provide to the ERCOT system. The more scarce energy is — and the higher the demand — the higher the price, according to the statement.
“The market has always rewarded scarcity and not reliability,” Hirs said.
ERCOT also said consumers can download its app or visit its website to see real-time electricity data as Texas heads into the hottest part of the year.