AUSTIN — Inadequate electric power reserves likely will force Texans to cut back this summer to avoid rolling outages if the weather matches last year’s record heat, utility experts warned state legislators Thursday.
“We have to have conservation, and everyone made a tremendous difference during the peak of hot, summer days (last) August. We have to have that plus some to survive this summer without rotating outages,” H.B. “Trip” Doggett, president and CEO of the Electric Reliability Council of Texas, told the House State Affairs Committee.
“It looks like we’re going to really have to embrace conservation because we don’t have the extra generation,” Cook said.
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Texas set a record electricity peak of 68,330 megawatts on Aug. 3 — breaking the 2010 record of 65,776 megawatts. A single megawatt can power 1,000 homes for one hour.
The state’s population grew by more than 4 million over the past decade. Industry also is expanding.
“There’s virtually no industry in this state that doesn’t demand a lot and highly reliable electricity — whether it’s manufacturing
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