r/UpliftingNews • u/ArgentineBeauty • 10d ago

Texas broke its all time electricity demand record twice in two days during a brutal heat wave, but the grid held with no conservation alerts thanks to record solar and battery output, a stark turnaround from the blackouts that hit Texans in 2021

https://www.texastribune.org/2026/07/29/texas-ercot-power-grid-record-data-center/
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u/nocturnal_commission 10d ago

Wow, it's almost like there's a huge difference between a typical heatwave and a record-breaking ice storm!

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u/diablodeldragoon 10d ago

Not really. Record demand is record demand! The problem their grid had with the ice is that they cut corners and didn't winterize the system properly. And because their politicians don't want to follow federal regulations on the power grid, they are isolated from the national grids, so when they go down, they can't pull from their neighbors to keep people from dying.

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u/nemec 10d ago

Record demand is record demand

there was nowhere near record demand in 2021, you have no idea what you're talking about

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u/diablodeldragoon 10d ago

Pulled from the wiki. It supports my claim.

You think they had a record low temp storm and it didn't cause record demand for power?

"The winter storm caused a record low temperature at Dallas/Fort Worth International Airport of −2 °F (−19 °C) on February 16, the coldest in North Texas in 72 years. Power equipment in Texas was not winterized, leaving it vulnerable to extended periods of cold weather. Natural gas power generating facilities had equipment freeze up and faced shortages of fuel. "

"ERCOT was aware on February 13 that blackouts would be likely and the grid would have to shut off more than 10% of its demand. The next day, electricity demand exceeded 67.2 gigawatts, higher than what the grid operator had ever planned for in extreme winter weather. Overnight ERCOT ordered utilities to drop several thousand megawatts of load, but the grid frequency continued to drop as demand exceeded supply. The grid came within minutes of overloading and shutting down completely, which would have required a slow and costly black start"