State’s Electric Supply Looks Good For Fall And Winter

AUSTIN, Texas (AP) €” The grid operator for Texas says electric users should have sufficient supply for demands this fall and winter.

The Electric Reliability Council of Texas, or ERCOT, on Thursday announced its predictions for fall and the preliminary outlook for December through February.

The fall report includes more than 82,000 megawatts of total generation capacity and a peak demand forecast of about 54,400 megawatts. That's unchanged from the preliminary forecast released in May. Since then, four gas-fired combustion turbine units and three wind projects began operating.

One megawatt of demand is typically enough to power about 500 homes during mild weather conditions and about 200 homes during summer peak demand.

ERCOT manages the flow of electric power to nearly 24 million Texas customers, representing about 90 percent of the state's electric load.