At a press availability Thursday, ERCOT, operators of the Texas energy grid, delivered their SARA Report for the Summer of ’21. It’s the Seasonal Assessment of Resource Adequacy, and Manager of Resource Adequacy Pete Warnken says they are ready. “Fortunately, we all have a lot of experience with extreme heat. In terms of preparation activities by generation owners, they’re used to that.”
The first question asked by press was expected. “Why should we have confidence in this assessment when the winter assessment was wrong?”
The answer was technical and non-specific, but the gist was that we are better prepared to handle heat in Texas than we are cold.
“By the way,” Warnken explained along the way, “Winter weather is much more volatile than other times of the year.”
It’s also colder.
“Winter is certainly a challenge to be able to predict big storm events. That’s not as big of a deal during the summer,” he added.
As long as there aren’t hurricanes.
To the extent they can adequately assess, ERCOT thinks you’ll be able to keep the lights and air-conditioning on this summer.
Unless things change.
photo: Getty Images