AUSTIN, Texas — As the summer heat creates high demand for power from the Texas grid, homes may experience rolling blackouts as well as local power outages. The Texas Tribune shared ways to tell the difference between the two losses of power.
Rolling blackouts from ERCOT are announced through local media or ERCOT's social media, app and emergency email alerts. These blackouts also impact the ERCOT region encompassing most of Texas, so a local issue is probably to blame for individual town outages. In such cases, it's recommended to contact the local utility company.
Local utilities include groups like Austin Energy, CenterPoint Energy of the greater Houston area and Oncor of the North Texas area.
According to the Tribune, rolling blackouts "occur only in ERCOT's most severe level of emergency conditions" and are used as a last resort. ERCOT also asks local utility companies to "reduce their demand on the power grid" in those situations. The local companies usually proceed to begin their own rolling blackouts.
The Tribune reported ERCOT interim CEO Brad Jones said in May that "he was cautious but not concerned about the grid's reliability this summer." However, if outages were to occur in the coming months, they would not be as long as the ones from the February 2021 winter storm.
ERCOT has only ever requested controlled outages one time each in 1989, 2006, 2011, 2014 and 2021, the Tribune reported.
Energy conservation requests from ERCOT to Texas residents are used to help prevent such outages. Residents can take part in these requests and help reduce stress on the power grid by "turning off unnecessary lights, unplugging big appliances and turning up your thermostat," the Tribune said.
To read the full report, click here.
PEOPLE ARE ALSO READING: