By Tom Kleckner
ERCOT’s first assessment of the summer season foresees a repeat of 2019 — record electric usage and tight reserves — but with additional capacity to help meet demand.
The Texas grid operator’s seasonal assessment of resource adequacy (SARA) projects a peak demand of 76.7 GW, almost 2 GW over the current record of 74.8 GW set last August. However, ERCOT expects to have 82.4 GW of total resource capacity on hand, a 3.5-GW increase over last summer’s available capacity.
“We continue to expect the region to have adequate reserves to cover a range of system conditions,” Warren Lasher, ERCOT’s senior director of system planning, said during a media call Thursday.
The grid operator’s reserve margin remains at 10.6%, 2 percentage points higher than last summer’s 8.6% margin. (See ERCOT’s Reserve Margin Climbs to 10.6% in 2020.)
ERCOT said that, as in 2019, conditions could warrant the need to declare an energy emergency, but it noted that it and its market participants are taking steps to ensure system reliability can be maintained during tight conditions.
It has added 513 MW of additional capacity since December alone, including 348 MW of wind capacity. Solar energy accounts for 77 MW of capacity, and an 88-MW gas plant provides the only new addition of fossil generation.
Pointing to the vast amount of renewable energy in ERCOT’s generator interconnection queue (104.6 GW), John Hall, director of regulatory and legislative affairs for the Environmental Defense Fund, said renewable energy plays a critical role in “ensuring Texans have the power they need during the hot summer months ahead.”
“Texas’ competitive electricity market continues to lead the nation in providing clean, affordable and reliable power,” he said in a statement.
ERCOT also on Tuesday released its final SARA report for the spring season (March-May). The grid operator expects sufficient generation to meet a spring peak of 64.2 GW.
It will release the final summer SARA report and a revised Capacity, Demand and Reserves report in early May.
