ERCOT said Thursday it will have sufficient installed capacity available to meet projected peak demand this winter and spring.
According to its final seasonal assessment of resource adequacy (SARA) for the winter months (December to February), ERCOT will have more than 82 GW of capacity available — more than enough to meet an expected winter peak of 62.3 GW.
The capacity includes 136 MW of winter-rated gas-fired and wind capacity that have become commercially operable since the release of the preliminary winter SARA. As much as 768 MW of planned winter-rated capacity could be available from new gas generation, wind and utility-scale solar projects.
The forecast projects more than 7 GW of resource outages this winter, based on historical data compiled since 2016.
“We studied a range of potential risks and believe there will be sufficient operating reserves to meet the forecasted peak demand,” Pete Warnken, ERCOT’s manager of resource adequacy, said in a statement.
ERCOT’s all-time winter peak is 65.9 GW, set in January 2018.
The Texas grid operator’s preliminary spring SARA for March to May foresees an additional 2.9 GW of gas, wind and solar units coming online to meet an expected peak demand of 64.2 GW. The final spring SARA report will be released in early March.
— Tom Kleckner
