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CPS Energy and the Electric Reliability Council of Texas both experienced new all-time high energy demand records this week as temperatures soared across the state, with San Antonio reaching a searing 108 degrees on Wednesday.
Demand on brutally hot days across the state is driven up by the wider use of A/C systems as Texans crank up the air to keep cool. Combined with Texas’ growing population and an ongoing drought, both the state grid operator and CPS Energy have seen energy demand grow year over year for the past three years.
On Wednesday, the municipally owned utility set a new all-time high energy demand record of 5,858 megawatts between 6 and 7 p.m., surpassing the previous record of 5,703 megawatts set on Aug. 21, 2023. One megawatt is enough to power about 250 homes on a hot Texas day.
“This record highlights the extraordinary demand on our energy grid as San Antonio reached a scorching 108°F, which not only broke the record high for this date but also tied for the fourth hottest temperature ever recorded in our city’s history!” the utility wrote on a social media post shared Thursday.
Statewide demand was in a similar position this week. On Tuesday, it hit 85,559 megawatts, breaking the previous record of 85,508 megawatts set last August. Last summer, ERCOT saw the state reach 10 new all-time peak demand records, and had to issue several conservation warnings in August and September in an effort to avoid grid failure.
ERCOT experienced an energy emergency on Sept. 6, 2023, for the first time since Winter Storm Uri in 2021, driven largely by transmission squeezes as the state’s generation portfolio shifts to more renewables.
Partially in response to Winter Storm Uri, CPS Energy launched a color-coded Energy Conservation Levels system in 2022 for the summer months that help it communicate with customers how stable or dire the local energy constraints are and if higher levels of conservation are necessary. The utility issued a yellow day conservation notice on Wednesday (as well as several last week), which asks the utility’s customers to look “for effective ways to cut back on energy.”
According to state energy experts, solar and storage made a determinative difference this week.
“Without them, there almost certainly would have been rolling outages,” said state grid expert Doug Lewin in his most recent weekly newsletter Friday morning. Lewin noted that demand response also played a big role this week, “though you can’t see it like other resources on the ERCOT dashboard,” he wrote, “…it’s past time for the state to create opportunities for Texas families and small customers to cash in on demand response savings,” he added.
High temperatures are expected to continue for the state through next week, according to the National Weather Service, although storms may move into the area starting Tuesday and cool things off a bit.
