Texas Electric Grid 101

In May 2024, Texas set six records for daily power consumption. And with summer temperatures forecast to be above normal again, more electricity will be needed to cool our homes and businesses.

And in June 2024, the Electric Reliability Council of Texas reported that there will be a 16% chance of an electric grid emergency and a 12% chance of rolling blackouts this August.

With that in mind, Texas 2036 takes a look at exactly how much electric power we’re using, how much we’ll need in the future and what Texas is doing to meet that growing demand.

Texas 2036 highlights growing need for energy

In March, Texas 2036 released the Future of Texas Energy dashboard, which projected a doubling of power would be needed between now and 2050. Given these new ERCOT projections, we’re now looking at potentially doubling even that estimate.

This makes even more urgent the need to generate more electricity along with the transmission infrastructure necessary to connect power plants to consumers. And it takes time to build both of these components. Efforts by electric officials to work with generators and electric transmission and distribution utilities to prepare for this future are essential.