ERCOT issues Weather Watch through Friday, Jan. 10

Texas power grid operator ERCOT has issued a Weather Watch from January 6-10 as a large part of Texas is expected to see temperatures dip below freezing during this timeframe.  ERCOT says that grid conditions are expected to be normal this time and are not asking people to conserve.  There is no talk of outages.  The ERCOT website shows the grid is expected to have plenty of capacity to handle the extra demand.

ERCOT issues a Weather Watch to give advance notice of any forecasted significant weather that will result in higher electrical demand and the potential for lower reserves.  If conditions would require it, a Weather Watch would be followed by a Voluntary Conservation Notice and Conservation Appeal.  If electricity supply is still needed, there are three levels of Energy Emergencies, and controlled outages do not occur until Level 3.

“ERCOT is monitoring conditions closely and will deploy all available tools to manage the grid, continuing a reliability-first approach to operations,” ERCOT said in a news release on its website.

In 2023, ERCOT announced the launch of the Texas Advisory and Notification System (TXANS) which includes two alerts, the ERCOT Weather Watch and a Voluntary Conservation Notice where Texans will be asked to voluntarily reduce usage during peak times – if it is safe to do so.