Solar and battery power generations have helped bolster ERCOT’s grid, but data center, population and economic growth is slated to surge demand.
The demand on Texas’ energy grid by 2032 will be nearly double a record that was set last week, and state regulators say they will need more varied electrical generation to meet that demand.
The Electric Reliability Council of Texas (ERCOT) forecasts the statewide electric demand will reach roughly 175,000 megawatts — one megawatt can power 250 residential customers during peak hours — in six years, driven by a massive influx of data centers, along with Texas’ growing population and other industrial projects as the economy continues to boom, the council’s CEO Pablo Vegas told the state’s Senate Business and Commerce Committee on Wednesday.
Regulators said they are confident the grid will meet that demand thanks to an influx of solar power and battery storage, but also cautioned that the state needs more natural gas power generation to keep the lights on when the sun goes down and solar quits generating electricity.
“Texas is continuing to grow beyond data centers significantly,” said Thomas Gleeson, chair of the Public Utility Commission of Texas. “We’re doing great as a state and continuing to win on almost every front. There is still going to be a need to serve all the rest of the non-data center load, and that is going to require a balanced mix of resources to do that.”
The latest projection comes days after soaring temperatures statewide last week broke record demands on the ERCOT grid twice, the highest of which was 91,308 megawatts on July 22. That broke the record demand of 87,403 megawatts set the previous day, which broke the old high of 85,508 megawatts set in August 2023.
Those records, however, hardly registered in the consciousness of most Texans as ERCOT’s calls for energy conservation, a fairly regular occurrence during the hottest months of recent years, were not necessary on the two days of peak energy demand. The grid seamlessly met the demand because of solar and battery generation that has been added to the grid in recent years.
“We hit an all time peak, and we had no issue hitting that peak,” Gleeson said.
When the record was set around 5 p.m. July 22, the ERCOT grid had more than 20,000 megawatts of buffer between its demand and the capacity of electricity generation committed to the grid. This meant the grid had the capacity to serve an additional 5 million homes.
The grid’s ability to stand up during the hottest daytime hours was largely attributed to a massive growth of solar generation, which at times exceeded 45% of all electricity being generated. On July 21 and then again on Monday, the grid broke records for total electricity generated by solar, which now sits at 34,700 megawatts. And on July 22, the grid set a record of 11,980 megawatts of energy being discharged from batteries.
Source: Paul Cobler, The Texas Tribune
Photo Credit: An Oberon solar project in Notrees in Ector County. The farm, operated by 174 Power Global, produces 180 megawatts of power. Eli Hartman for The Texas Tribune
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