Bulbing demand, electric shortage Larger Texas population uses
more energy, sources changing Published: Monday, July 30, 2012
Updated: Monday, July 30, 2012 23:07 Texas’ population is on the
rise and so is the potential for energy shortages. Due to
population growth, high temperatures and increasing energy
demands, the electric use in Texas is growing faster than the
electric generation being built to service. This leads to a
decrease in the electric reserves, the gap between the energy
supply and demand during the peak hours of 3 p.m. and 7 p.m. The
Electric Reliability Council of Texas is the electricity grid
operator for the state and forecasts the reserves to be 14.3
percent in the summer of 2013, 9.8 percent in 2014, and drop
below zero in 2022. “Our goal is to prevent outages,” media
communications specialist for the Council Robbie Searcy said.
“ERCOT is very focused on grid reliability and we’re working
very closely with public utility commissions on solutions to
these future resource adequacy concerns