U.S. Central states, Texas power use to break more records this week

© Reuters. FILE PHOTO: Utility poles lead to downtown Dallas during a heat advisory due to scorching weather in Dallas, Texas, U.S. July 12, 2022. REUTERS/Shelby Tauber/File Photo

(Reuters) - Power use in Texas and other Central U.S. states will likely break all-time highs in coming days as homes and businesses crank up their air conditioners to escape a lingering heat wave, regional electric grid operators forecast on Tuesday.

Grid operators in the region have already started taking early steps to ensure they have enough resources to keep up with soaring demand.

The Electric Reliability Council of Texas (ERCOT), which operates the grid for more than 26 million customers representing about 90% of the state's power load, got permission from the state's environmental regulators to allow power plants to exceed their air permit pollution limits on Monday.

Last week, ERCOT met demand in part by urging customers to conserve energy to avoid taking much bigger actions to reduce usage, like rotating outages.

The Southwest Power Pool (NASDAQ:POOL) (SPP), which operates the grid for almost 18 million people in 17 states from North Dakota to Texas, has not taken as many steps as ERCOT to control usage.

SPP, like ERCOT, has asked its members to postpone maintenance on some critical equipment like power lines and generating plants, a common step grid operators take to ensure resources will be available during times of high demand.

Extreme weather is a reminder of the February freeze in 2021 that left millions of Texans without power, water and heat for days during a deadly storm as ERCOT scrambled to prevent a grid collapse after an unusually large amount of generation shut.

AccuWeather forecast temperatures in Houston, the biggest city in Texas, will rise from 99 Fahrenheit (37.2 Celsius) on Tuesday to 100 F on Wednesday and Thursday. That compares with a normal high of 94 F (34 C) for this time of year.

ERCOT said power use hit a preliminary 79,039 megawatts (MW) on Monday, topping the prior all-time high of 78,419 MW on July 12, and will reach 80,318 MW on Tuesday and 81,480 MW on Wednesday.

One megawatt can power around 1,000 U.S. homes on a typical day, but only about 200 homes on a hot summer day in Texas.

Power prices at the ERCOT North Hub, which includes Dallas, jumped to $220 per megawatt hour (MWh) for Tuesday from $144 for Monday. That compares with an average of $74 so far this year, $141 in 2021 and a five-year (2017-2021) average of $56.

Overall, the United States is expected to use record amounts of power in 2022 due mostly to rising economic and population growth in Sun Belt states covered by ERCOT, SPP and in the U.S. Southeast.

SPP forecast power use would reach 53,760 MW on Tuesday, which would break the current all-time high of 52,028 MW on July 15.

AccuWeather forecast temperatures in Oklahoma City, the biggest city in SPP, will reach 111 F on Tuesday. That would be the hottest day in the city since August 2012 when highs reached a record-tying 113 F and compares with a normal high of 94 F for this time of year, according to federal data.