HOUSTON — ERCOT encouraging Texans to conserve power for the third straight day, but officials say the situation has improved.
Wednesday more electricity flowed onto the power grid and demand decreased. It's good news for now, but with temperatures expected to continue soaring ERCOT says Texans should continue cutting back their energy usage through Friday.
You can keep track of the power grid situation minute by minute. All you have to do is head to www.ercot.com and you'll spot their "Daily Outlook" right away. It's a simple line graph with huge implications. It shows you real time system conditions highlighting capacity and demand.
Capacity is how much energy is available in the state at that moment.
Demand is how much we're all using.
Capacity is red. Demand is green.
If the green line were to hit the red line, that's when Texas could start to see rolling blackouts and outages. In this extreme heat, that is a major problem.
On Monday and Tuesday, those lines got dangerously close, but ERCOT now says the grid did manage to get some relief.