ERCOT gets federal permission to exceed air quality limits, noting possible risk of blackout amid freezing weather in Texas

HOUSTON – The Electric Reliability Council of of Texas (ERCOT) requested an emergency order on Friday evening from the U.S. Department of Energy on Friday to bypass certain emission standards for power plants due to the impact of extreme cold weather in Texas.

In a bulletin, ERCOT also asked the Secretary of Energy to “authorize all electric generating units located within the ERCOT interconnection to operate up to their maximum generation output in certain limited circumstances.”

This comes after demand reached a record high of 74,000 megawatts as most of Texas experienced wind chills below zero degrees on Friday morning and is expected to last through Sunday morning.

According to the order, a “small number” of units in the ERCOT region experienced “operating difficulties due to cold weather. Specifically, the order said approximately 11,000 megawatts of thermal generating units, 4,000 megawatts of wind generating units and 1,700 of solar-generating units are out of service due to the cold. These units, the order said, are expected to be back in service by Saturday afternoon.

The U.S. Dept. of Energy warned that if those units do not return to service, or if ERCOT experiences additional outages, it may be possible that ERCOT “may need to curtail some amount of firm load” until 10 a.m. Sunday.

According to the ERCOT Grid Dashboard, as of Saturday, operating reserves remain normal and there is currently enough power for demand.

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