The organization that runs the Texas power grid raised eyebrows on Tuesday when it asked residents to conserve energy.
The Electric Reliability Council of Texas said around 4:30 p.m. CT that "ERCOT may enter emergency conditions" due to "a combination of high gen outages typical in April and higher-than-forecasted demand caused by a stalled cold front over Texas."
No blackouts happened, and the appeal to conserve energy ended around 8:40 p.m.
With temperatures between 50 and 80 degrees for much of the state on Tuesday, Texans were wondering why were there problems with the energy grid and if they'd have to to prepare for days-long blackouts like in February.
Residents were asked to conserve energy because around 25% of Texas' power generating potential was offline for maintenance, USA Today reported.
"In April of every year we see a lot of outages for regular maintenance, and what we're seeing is not that unusual," Woody Rickerson, vice president of grid planning and operations for ERCOT, told the paper.
The maintenance is needed to prepare the power generators of for the summer months, according to energy experts.
“I will say having all those power plants down means they will be ready to step in when the summer comes around. So I’m feeling better about that. It is frustrating and it is confusing. It’s kind of that necessary process to get (generators) ready for the summer,” Joshua Rhodes, a research associate at Webber Energy Group at the University of Texas, told News4SA.
ERCOT is being closely watched after it was unable to keep up with demand due to a February storm, which cause at least 133 deaths, rolling blackouts, and pricey electric bills.
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