© InstagramSnow covers Corpus Christi in Texas on December 8 2017. First time in 13 years
At one point, Texans were using 65,731 megawatts, blowing past the previous record by nearly 5 percent. Multiple records were set overnight as temperatures plunged statewide, but the new peak arrived between 7 and 8 a.m.
The peak use was significantly higher than the Electric Reliability Council of Texas' projection of 61,068 megawatts for a peak this winter. It fell short of the "extreme" peak projection by just 1,044 megawatts.
Overnight, the Dallas area recorded a low of 13 degrees, well below the average low of 34. While frigid, that was still far from the record low of 2 degrees in 1930.
ERCOT, which manages the electricity market for 90 percent of Texas, said there was sufficient power-generation capacity to handle the deep freeze. Specifics of excess capacity weren't immediately available.
Previously, ERCOT had reported that its projected 2018 margin - the gap between power generation capacity and expected demand - was significantly lower than the state's preferred minimum of 13.75 percent.
That reserve margin dropped as companies announced that they would close three large coal plants and one natural gas plant in 2018. ERCOT also pointed to the "long-term forced outage of a gas-fired plant in the Houston area, and delays in the projected in-service dates for two wind projects."
"Given these capacity reductions, ERCOT is still expected to have sufficient system-wide operating reserves for the winter season, even under an extreme peak load scenario," the grid operator reported in November.
ERCOT did not issue a so-called conservation alert Wednesday morning. Such alerts are typically issued before the mandatory rolling blackouts.
The last time Texas had rolling blackouts - with parts of the grid going dark for 10 or 15 minutes - was in February 2011. That was Super Bowl time in North Texas and was among the problems that gave the region a black eye while in that national spotlight.
The 2011 "rotating outages," a term ERCOT uses for rolling blackouts, were heightened by ice and snow storms. Wednesday morning, there were only small, scattered outages in North Texas, in line with the routine outages seen any other day.
Although peak electricity use set a winter record, it didn't top the summer record. Besides summers in Texas being hotter than the winters are cold, a lot of Texas homes use natural gas for heating, taking some of the burden off the electricity grid during extreme cold.
That's one thing that made the numbers Wednesday morning notable.
"That's the kind of usage you would see in July and August," said Geoff Bailey, spokesman for Oncor, which owns and operates North Texas power lines.
ERCOT's summer peak record came on Aug. 11, 2016, when Texans were using 71,110 megawatts, well above the new winter peak.
Let's all save electricity for a rainy day.
Saving electricity will save lives.
Using electricity will, on the other hand, use lives.
Oh, well.....
...using lives is important too.
It is how the wealthy prosper and make good.
Get to work, slave.
Make money for your master.
ned, out