TEXAS, USA — Sunday’s energy demand broke an all-time Texas record of 75,000 megawatts. That’s more than even the 69,000 megawatts Texans were able to use before the grid failed during last February's storm.
Doug Lewin with Stoic Energy said he sees hotter temps looming ahead.
“It's alarming and particularly when you think of what might be coming in July and August," Lewin said.
There are a bunch of factors causing temps to soar. One is climate change. Another is an influx of people moving to the lone star state.
"We have a state that doesn't put any kind of a focus on energy efficiency," Lewin said. "So, we see huge increases in electric demand and both extreme heat and extreme cold that drives demand up and so here we are setting records on a nearly daily basis.”
Texans' saving grace has been unusually high amounts of solar and wind power. But Lewin says those, especially wind power won’t last forever.
Lewin asked, "At the end of the day, are we going to have enough power are we going to end up with some kind of outages?"
Oncor Regional Customer Operations Manager, Charles Hill, said when the going gets tough this summer, every little but of energy you can conserve will chip away at your electric bill.
“Things like doing laundry morning and night, not in the heat of the day," Hill said. "Same thing with dishes, cooking or fixing a sandwich at night rather than turning on your oven.”
If you have windows that face east or west turn your blinds up rather than down to help reflect the heat away.
If you have a fireplace, make sure the damper is closed so your ac is not pulling hot air from outside down the chimney.