ERCOT says the grid held up even with peak usage records during recent winter weather

ERCOT: Grid held up even with peak usage records

Four new peak usage records were set during the most recent bitter cold, but the state's gas, coal and nuclear power plants performed.

There was a good report on how we stayed warm during the first blow of real winter weather this year.

All the analysis is not yet done, with a deeper dive still to come, but the Electric Reliability Council of Texas told the Public Utility Commission how well and why the grid held during a storm that delivered a pretty cold blow to the Lone Star State.

"This was a pretty significant storm," ERCOT Chief Operating Officer Woody Rickerson said.

The arctic blast that barreled into Texas Sunday was the third-coldest winter event in Texas in the last 15 years.

And only one, the nine days of February 2021, was longer than the four-day deep freeze we were in.

"Very significant storm," Rickerson said.

Rickerson told the PUC meeting that four new peak usage records were set during the bitter cold, but the state's gas, coal and nuclear power plants performed.

"I think this was a good demonstration of the benefits of winterization," Rickerson said.

Since the 2021 storm, where thousands were without power for days and hundreds died, 1,300 power-generating units have been inspected under new requirements for winter readiness.

"There were some local outages throughout the state, but the ERCOT grid held up very strongly and that is a testament to all the hard work that the commission has done over the last two years on weatherization," PUC member Lori Cobos said.

Linemen and ground personnel got high praise from PUC chairwoman Kathleen Jackson, along with the changes in the past two years designed to strengthen the grid.

"We've now seen these reforms work time and time again, through several weather events and record-setting demand," Jackson said.

So what worked?

Wind generation fluctuated, but solar power proved positive as a supplement.

"For the first time, solar was at a level that kind of changed the dynamics of an operating day of a winter storm, and it did that by providing a significant amount of power during the middle of the day," Rickerson said.

The Martin Luther King Jr. Holiday kept businesses shuttered.

School closures, which created problems for some parents, helped the power grid.

Texans also answered the two calls put out by ERCOT to dial back their thermostats.

"I think it's pretty obvious, though the conservation call had a big effect, there's some good evidence already that shows that people really did conserve quite a bit," Rickerson added.

Based on the performance from Sunday to Wednesday, Texans can warm to the idea that the grid will hold over the next several days when the freezing temperatures return.

It was a good early test, but there’s a lot of winter left.