(Reuters) -Demand for power in Texas hit a record high on Thursday for the third time this week and the tenth time this summer as homes and businesses powered their air conditioners to escape a lingering heat wave.
The Electric Reliability Council of Texas, which operates the grid for more than 26 million customers representing about 90% of the state’s power load, said it has enough power for current demand.
After the state hit 11 record highs for demand last summer, ERCOT said usage hit a preliminary 84,515 megawatts (MW), which topped the most recent record high of 83,961 MW hit on Wednesday.
Thursday’s demand record will likely be broken again on Friday with ERCOT forecasting usage will reach 86,621 MW.
Temperatures in Houston, the biggest city in Texas, went as high as 104 degrees Fahrenheit (40 Celsius) on Thursday, according to AccuWeather.
People in Texas have worried about extreme weather since a deadly storm in February 2021 that left millions without power, water and heat for days as ERCOT struggled to avoid a grid collapse.
In the real-time market, prices topped $4000 per MWh in some Texas ERCOT hubs, according to its website.
(Reporting by Ashitha Shivaprasad and Rahul Paswan in Bengaluru; Editing by Chris Reese and Aurora Ellis)
