ERCOT Sets All-Time Demand Record of 91.1 GW in Texas

The Electric Reliability Council of Texas (ERCOT), operator of the grid serving most of Texas, set a demand record of 91.1 gigawatts (GW) on July 22, according to the U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA). The peak, recorded at 6:00 p.m. Central time, exceeded the previous high of 85.5 GW from August 2023 by 6%.

The record came during a heat wave with temperatures above 100 °F across much of Texas; the EIA noted the peak could be broken again this summer if another heat wave arrives. The American Public Power Association echoed the figure and added that the Southwest Power Pool also set a record of 57.9 GW on July 27. For the region, ERCOT is the technical reference on the U.S. side of the energy bridge: the generation mix that covered the peak, natural gas (48%) and solar (32%), illustrates how reliability is maintained at demand extremes. In Mexico, the grid operator, the Centro Nacional de Control de Energía (CENACE), reported its own demand record last week at 54,300 MW, according to CFE data.

In the same week, ERCOT broke solar generation records (34,665 megawatts, MW) and battery discharge records (11,980 MW), and issued no calls to reduce consumption, according to Renewable Energy World. Battery deployment at the peak moment reached nearly 12,000 MW, compared with around 4,000 MW at the 2023 peak. The operator had projected demand for this summer that could exceed 92 GW, driven by heat and new loads such as data centers. The Texas grid holds 53,568 MWdc of installed solar and 29,163 MWh of storage, according to the Solar Energy Industries Association (SEIA).

The key metric to watch for the rest of the summer is the reserve margin: ERCOT served the peak with more than 10 GW of headroom and without emergency alerts, and projected a 5.96% probability of a grid emergency in August, its highest seasonal-risk month.

This article was written with artificial intelligence assistance from verified sources and reviewed by a human editor before publication.