Live winter storm updates: Electricity demand projected to set new winter record, but mass outages not expected

The CEO of Texas’ power grid operator expects electricity demand to peak around 8 a.m. Friday — and set a new record for demand during the winter.

The head of the Electric Reliability Council of Texas says he’s confident there will be enough power generation to keep Texans’ power on.

CEO Brad Jones forecasts about 72,000 megawatts of demand Friday morning. That would surpass last February’s roughly 69,000 megawatts of demand before the grid faltered and there were dayslong power outages across the state that left millions in the dark in subfreezing temperatures. Hundreds of people died.

But the difference this year is ERCOT has a much larger cushion of power available to the grid, Jones told The Texas Tribune on Wednesday evening. Jones said he expects ERCOT to have around 81,000 megawatts of power generation available for the grid.

Still, Jones said he is nervous about the performance of the natural gas supply this week. Many of the power plants that generate electricity for the grid run on natural gas. That system’s ability to perform in the cold has been in question since last February, when the winter storm caused power outages and equipment failures that choked off much of the fuel supply to many electricity generators when they needed it most to produce electricity.

“I’m always nervous about gas,” Jones said.

— Mitchell Ferman