O'Rourke hits Abbott over request for Texans to cut energy use amid heat wave

[Yo_Mama_Been_Loggin]

Texas gubernatorial candidate Beto O’Rourke knocked Gov. Greg Abbott (R) on Sunday night after the state’s grid operator appealed to Texans to “voluntarily conserve electricity” during a statewide heat wave on Monday.

“The governor of the 9th largest economy on earth — the energy capital of the world — can’t guarantee the power will stay on tomorrow,” O’Rourke said in a Tweet. “We need change.”

Link to tweet

The “conservation appeal” issued Monday by the Electric Reliability Council of Texas (ERCOT) said no major outages were expected, but asked people to consider reducing electricity use from 2-8 p.m. local time. ERCOT cited “record high electric demand” during the heat wave and low wind to power turbines as “driving the need for this important action by customers.”

ERCOT urged Texans to turn down their thermostats and hold off on using energy-guzzling appliances or pool pumps during the six hour period.

https://www.yahoo.com/news/o-rourke-hits-abbott-over-171829107.html

[Native]

1. That is so perfect!

[rickford66]

2. "ERCOT urged Texans to turn down their thermostats"

Shouldn't that be "turn up" ?

[Hermit-The-Prog]

4. Up is down in GOPland, comrade. You will submit yourself for re-education immediately.

[Igel]

5. Yes. ERCOT was right, the yahoos at Yahoo got it wrong.

https://www.ercot.com/news/release?id=90030206-5cf5-db8e-13d1-f8fe2bd0128f

According to the PUC, ways to reduce electricity use during peak times include turning up your thermostat a degree or two, if comfortable, and postponing running major appliances or pool pumps during afternoon peak hours.

https://www.ercot.com/gridmktinfo/dashboards/systemwidedemand is handy--it gives a 24-hour "look ahead" projection, and that's what the call to conserve in the face of forecast record temperatures and record demand prompted. They're a bit loose, overstating the predicted demand.

Then they update the prediction for the current day based on current conditions, with a separate line for actually reported usage.

Humorously, around 7 pm actual usage exceeded same-day predicted usage. That's when I thought, "Meh, demand's falling below capacity, I can run the dishwasher."

Apparently there's a level of "please cut usage" that's between what ERCOT said and actual rolling blackouts.

[Hermit-The-Prog]

3. "Electric Reliability Council of Texas" -- named by Democratic People's Republic of Korea