As freezing temperatures enveloped Texas, demand for electricity Friday morning shattered the grid operator’s peak expectations for the maximum amount of power people would use to stay warm this winter.
Luckily, the state’s grid held, but the resiliency test isn’t over: High demand is forecast to continue into Saturday while power supplied from wind, which has been offering a significant boost during the blustery Arctic blast, will likely drop off.
Electricity demand hovered around 74,000 megawatts Friday morning. That far surpassed the previous winter record of 69,871 megawatts during the 2021 storm. But that previous record demand didn’t account for how much power Texans might have used if blackouts hadn't hit much of the state.
