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Power usage spiking in Texas during heat wave

Power consumption in Texas set a record this week and those records are expected to be broken with hotter weather on the way.

Houston — HOUSTON, Texas – The heat is on in the Texas.

High temperatures are expected across the state through the weekend.

The summer sizzle is putting the pressure on power companies to keep up with the demand.

Power consumption in Texas set a record this week and those records are expected to be broken with hotter weather on the way.

The Electric Reliability Council of Texas, ERCOT, is the state of Texas’ power grid operator.

ERCOT delivers electricity to about 90 percent of homes in the state.

In a worst case scenario, up to 24 million people could be affected if the demand could not keep up with the supply.

Power companies like Reliant Energy need your help to make sure that doesn’t happen.

“Here in Texas the biggest user of energy is your air conditioning system generally," said Scott Burns with Reliant. "It uses up to 60 percent of your total energy in the summer.”

ERCOT has about 78,000 megawatts.

On Wednesday, the grid hit a peak for demand with consumers using more than 72,000 megawatts.

“We got close and the entire state was monitoring closely but we were never close to the point where we would see any sort of rolling outages or other measures to reduce usage," Burns said.

Texas is unique because it’s on its own power grid compared to the rest of the United States.

“We have a certain amount of supply and depending on how much people are using both businesses and individuals in their home, there’s that balance that we’re always trying to maintain between supply and demand,” Burns said.

Companies like Reliant are doing their part to help with that demand.

The company is asking customers to conserve energy between peak hours.

“One of the things we recommend is the 4x4 principle,” Burns said. “If you leave your house for four hours, we recommend actually increasing the temperature on your thermostat by four degrees.”

As long as people continue to do their part, energy companies don’t anticipate any extreme measures.

“In really extreme cases there could be something that’s called a rolling outage where ERCOT may call for rolling outages so that supply never is exceeded by demand,” Burns said.

It’s a battle energy companies expect to continue through the summer months.

Burns said so many people are moving to Texas that when it is combined with high temperatures, it’s natural that the demand will increase over time.

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