Texas heat brings the state’s power grid closest it has been to outages since 2021 winter storm

By JUAN A. LOZANO
Associated Press

HOUSTON (AP) — The sweltering heat wave in Texas has the power grid manager again asking residents to cut electricity use. This comes a day after the system was pushed to the brink of outages for the first time since a deadly winter blackout in 2021. The request by the Electric Reliability Council of Texas comes after low power reserves prompted the grid operator to issue a level 2 energy emergency alert Wednesday night. This was the first time ERCOT entered emergency operations since a 2021 ice storm knocked out power to millions for days and resulted in hundreds of deaths. ERCOT serves most of the state’s 30 million residents.