By Tom Kleckner
Summer has been late in coming to Texas, but it is quickly making up for the delay with triple-digit temperatures that are leading to four-figure prices in the ERCOT market.
AccuWeather says a ridge of high pressure has settled over Texas and will remain into the middle of this week, funneling hot air from the Western U.S. into the southern Great Plains. San Antonio and Dallas each had a single 100-degree day before last week. Houston hit 100 degrees for the first time on Thursday; heat indexes as high as 110 are expected into this week.
Naturally, energy consumption has been rising with the temperatures. On Wednesday, ERCOT demand peaked at nearly 73.1 GW during the interval ending at 5 p.m., falling just short of the all-time record of 73.5 GW set last July. Two days later, it topped 73.1 GW, setting an all-time high for August and marking the grid operator’s second-highest peak ever recorded.
ERCOT has so far met demand without resorting to the emergency measures it warned it might have to take before summer began. The grid operator has an 8.6% reserve margin and 78.9 GW of available capacity to meet a projected peak of nearly 75 GW. (See ERCOT: More Capacity, but Emergency Ops Still Expected.)
“ERCOT expects to have adequate generation to serve customers during this hot spell,” spokesperson Leslie Sopko said.
Real-time prices peaked systemwide at more than $2,400/MWh on Aug. 5, then settled at a high of $1,238.97/MWh at the West hub the next day, before dropping to a high of $91.96/MWh in the Houston load zone Wednesday. Houston hub prices hit 1514.94/MWh on Friday during the 15-minute interval ending at 3 p.m.
Day-ahead power prices hit $209.25/MWh in the North hub Thursday, the highest since reaching $300/MWh the day before the record peak last July. The hub’s next-day prices were at $38.50/MWh on Aug. 5.
