Texas Tells Consumers to Conserve Electricity as Wind Energy Falls Short

The Electric Reliability Council of Texas (ERCOT) has warned power consumers in Texas to conserve energy on Monday afternoon and evening because there will not be enough wind power to operate the power grid reliably in peak demand.

Though Texas is known for its role in the oil industry, it is also the nation’s number-one producer of wind energy. During a cold snap in the winter of 2021, however, wind turbines froze and many Texans found themselves without electricity.

Now that scenario is likely to repeat itself, albeit due to high temperatures that are accompanied by calm conditions.

ERCOT said in a statement:

With extreme hot weather driving record power demand across Texas, the Electric Reliability Council of Texas (ERCOT) is issuing a Conservation Appeal, asking Texans and Texas businesses to voluntarily conserve electricity, Monday, July 11 between 2-8 p.m. ERCOT also issued a Watch for a projected reserve capacity shortage from 2-8 p.m. At this time, no system-wide outages are expected.

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Factors driving the need for this important action by customers:

• Record high electric demand. The heat wave that has settled on Texas and much of the central United States is driving increased electric use. Other grid operators are operating under similar conservative operations programs as ERCOT due to the heatwave.
• Low wind. While solar power is generally reaching near full generation capacity, wind generation is currently generating significantly less than what it historically generated in this time period. Current projections show wind generation coming in less than 10 percent of its capacity.

The failure of wind power during peak demand comes as President Joe Biden and other leaders are pressing the nation to give up on fossil fuels in favor of “renewable” sources like wind and solar — and often without mentioning nuclear power.

But as California Gov. Gavin Newsom (D) warned during a similar power shortage in 2020, consumers need to “sober up” about the limits of wind and solar energy to power their electric grid.

This week, Biden will go, cap in hand, to Saudi Arabia, to ask it to produce more oil, after his administration has taken steps to reduce domestic oil and gas production.

Joel B. Pollak is Senior Editor-at-Large at Breitbart News and the host of Breitbart News Sunday on Sirius XM Patriot on Sunday evenings from 7 p.m. to 10 p.m. ET (4 p.m. to 7 p.m. PT). He is the author of the recent e-book, Neither Free nor Fair: The 2020 U.S. Presidential Election. His recent book, RED NOVEMBER, tells the story of the 2020 Democratic presidential primary from a conservative perspective. He is a winner of the 2018 Robert Novak Journalism Alumni Fellowship. Follow him on Twitter at @joelpollak.