BPUB asks Customers to Conserve Energy

BROWNSVILLE, TX – The Brownsville Public Utilities Board (BPUB) announces that electrical conservation is being requested from the Electric Reliability Council of Texas (ERCOT) starting today through Friday, June 18 to avoid rotating outages due to high demand throughout the state of Texas from sustained heat resulting in potential record-setting demand.

 

ERCOT advised BPUB on Monday that a significant number of forced generation outages for repairs, low wind output and potential record electric use for June because of high temperatures resulted in conservation to be needed across the state.

 

ERCOT says a new peak demand record for June could be set today. Based on current load forecasts, peak demand could exceed 73,000 megawatts (MW). June’s current peak demand record is 69,123 MW on June 27, 2018, between 4 and 5 p.m.

 

As repairs get completed at various facilities throughout the week, the number of generation outages should decrease; however, ERCOT is not ruling out the possibility of employing controlled outages to protect the reliability of the state’s electric system. BPUB will continue to monitor the situation and keep customers up to date on any further ERCOT announcements.

 

BPUB is requesting that customers conserve electricity this week. Compliance with this instruction will help prevent the need for controlled outages or loss of electricity throughout the state. This request will continue until the danger of overloading the electrical grid passes.

 

Customers can conserve electricity by turning off unnecessary lights, not washing and drying clothes during peak hours, and raising the thermostat on their air conditioners. More information is available on the BPUB website at www.brownsville-pub.com, Facebook at https://www.facebook.com/brownsvillepub or Twitter at https://twitter.com/BPUB_Tweets.

 

To report an outage, please use the BPUB app located at https://assist.brownsville-pub.com.