AUSTIN, Texas — Concerns are mounting over whether the Texas power grid is prepared to withstand triple-digit temperatures this summer, as memories of the February power outages are still fresh in many people’s minds. 

The grid is currently at the second level of alert, which just means that people need to conserve electricity. 

What You Need To Know

  • Texans express concern over power grid preparedness.
  • The grid is currently at the second level of alert, which just means that people need to conserve electricity.
  • The Electric Reliability Council of Texas issued a conservation alert on Monday

On Monday, the Electric Reliability Council of Texas, or ERCOT, asked Texans to reduce their electricity usage until the end of the week due to unexpected generator outages

ERCOT says this is common practice and prevents it from entering emergency conditions. 

Texas lawmakers passed legislation this session to address issues with the power grid, such as requiring plants to weatherize and creating an emergency alert system. 

But those changes aren’t expected to go into effect until next year, and many are concerned the grid is already facing supply and demand imbalances, with the hottest months of the year still ahead. 

“We are facing an unreliable grid this summer. We could have a disaster with rolling blackouts, or maybe even a much larger blackout of the Texas grid from which we don't get any hope," said Ed Hirs, energy fellow at the University of Houston. 

It’s just two weeks into June, and Texans are already having to limit their electricity usage due to supply issues on the power grid. 

ERCOT issued the conservation alert on Monday. 

“The ERCOT grid is built for the summer, so it is a bit disconcerting that so many were offline for, for a time period when it wasn't ... it was hot, but it wasn't as hot as we know it will get," said Dr. Joshua Rhodes of the Webber Energy Group at the University of Texas at Austin. 

ERCOT attributed the issue to “forced outages,” which is when power plants go down due to unexpected mechanical failures. 

On Monday, the number of plants experiencing outages was three to four times greater than normal, and 75% of those were coal, natural gas, and nuclear plants. 

In a statement to Spectrum News 1, ERCOT said it will be "issuing a Request for Information from generation owners to better understand why so many units are out of service and determine any further actions that may need to be taken. The information request will ask generation owners to supply data for the past two weeks to ensure the analysis extends beyond recent days. Typically, most generating units are brought back in-service by mid-May in preparation for the summer season."

“The stress that power plants were put under during the February events, is that leading to more maintenance events, leading to more maintenance needing to be done now? Looking at the age of our, you know, power plants are they getting old," said Rhodes. 

“If you don't replace the plumbing every 30 years you're going to have leaks. If you don't keep oil in your car, it's going to fail," said Hirs. "The equipment's breaking, it's not ready for operation. That's a manifestation of underinvestment.”

ERCOT says it does not anticipate any outages this week, but experts say that doesn’t mean we’re in the clear.  

“With climate change, it's going to change future weather and we're not going to always be able to look, you know, to the past to figure out what's going to happen in the future," said Rhodes. "We need to be stressing the system at least on, you know, on paper and computer models perhaps more than we're doing.”

Even when the power grid-related legislation begins, experts say how effective it is will be highly dependent on how thoroughly government agencies like the Railroad Commission and Public Utility Commission enforce it and penalize power generators that don’t meet the weatherization requirements. 

Still, critics say that those bills didn’t go far enough and are calling for lawmakers to take additional measures to increase the resiliency of the grid. 

Advocates want more action to be taken to reduce energy demand, like creating programs to weatherize buildings, build energy efficient homes and businesses, and incentivize consumers to reduce their energy usage. 

But some experts say that the energy market is fundamentally flawed, and that the grid will be unreliable and vulnerable until lawmakers restructure it to provide adequate incentives for power generators to reinvest in electrical infrastructure and the grid.