August heat sparks record electricity use
McALLEN — The demand for electricity on Texas’ largest electric grid surged through another milestone Monday, the fourth straight week of record-setting usage.
Demand hit 65,715 megawatts, enough electricity to power more than 13 million homes blasting air conditioners to escape the August heat, according to the Electric Reliability Council of Texas, a nonprofit charged with running the state’s largest grid.
About 75 percent of Texas, including the Rio Grande Valley, draws power from the council’s network.
“We were expecting to break a record this summer,” said Dottie Roark, a council spokeswoman. But no one expected the council to smash through four records in a month.
High temperatures, warm nights and humid days have conspired to make this summer feel hotter than last year, said Barry Goldsmith, the warning coordination meteorologist at the National Weather Service’s Brownsville station.
Temperatures were actually higher in the Valley last year, Goldsmith said. But with low humidity, Goldsmith said he suspects many people toughed it out without reaching for the air conditioning. This year’s humidity, which makes the days feel hotter, is harder to resist.
In McAllen, last August’s average high of 102.8 degrees trounces this August’s average 97.8 degree high, according to measurements taken at the McAllen-Miller International Airport. But the airport recorded a relative humidity of 56 percent last August, compared to 68 percent this year, according to data provided by the National Climatic Data Center’s regional climate center in Baton Rouge, La.
Every year, the council examines weather forecasts and economic data to estimate peak demand, which typically hits during August afternoons. This year, the council predicted peak demand at 64,052 megawatts.
That would have left 21.4 percent of the grid’s generating capacity unused, held in reserve for a heat wave or other unforeseen event.
Demand shot through the estimate Monday, reducing the reserve to 13.3 percent. A fat reserve let the grid handle the unexpected surge without a hiccup.
But the council’s projections show the margin for error will shrink sharply in the coming years. By 2015, the reserve is estimated to be at 12.9 percent.
That’s still slightly above the 12.5 percent cushion the council targets, but a slimmer margin would have been hit much harder by this year’s sudden demand.
And building more power plants isn’t an easy or quick solution.
About 190 plants were built in Texas from 1995 to 2009, according to records from the Public Utility Commission of Texas. Of those, seven were built in the Valley.
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Dave Hendricks covers McAllen and general assignments for The Monitor. He can be reached at (956) 683-4452.
