Temperatures and humidity remain elevated all across Texas, which will increase electricity demand into the late afternoon. The peak demand forecast today is 70,397 MWs, which is expected to occur at 5:00 PM CST. This would set the all-time record peak for September and exceed the previous high of 69,187 MWs, which was set last year. With cold fronts in the long-term forecast (woohoo!), this may be one of the hottest days of the month.
One forecast assigns a 66% probability of setting the September Coincident (CP) today. Currently, there are no other high-risk days expected until the second half of the month. We recommend that clients reduce electricity usage between 3:00 to 6:00 PM CST this afternoon to save on next year’s transmission costs.
We also recommend that clients with exposure to real-time index prices closely watch the ERCOT.com website and/or smartphone app this afternoon and try to reduce electricity usage if those prices begin to spike. ERCOT experienced some volatility yesterday in the spot market. We also suspect there were generation and/or transmission outages near the South Texas Project nuclear station between Houston and Corpus Christi yesterday. If those infrastructure issues were not repaired overnight, a repeat of yesterday's volatility is not out of the question today.
Reach out to your energy advisor or contact us for more details.