Texans Told To Turn Off the AC in a Very Hot Summer

The Texas electricity grid isn’t doing so well this year. For the second time this week the state’s power grid agency is telling Texans to turn up their thermostats to 78° and to avoid using large appliances, as it is expecting record temperatures this summer and lacks the energy to deal with them. They are also asking for energy conservation from 2 to 9 p.m. on Wednesday, July 13. A spokesperson for the Electric Reliability Council of Texans said he does not expect rolling blackouts to happen on July 13 – but hey, the summer has just begun. Low winds and low-hanging clouds have pretty much squelched much of the wind and solar interruptible power sources, and there have been higher-than-expected outages at coal and natural gas-fired power plants. If the grids still don’t improve, they may have to implement areas losing power for, initially, 45 minutes at a time. But if push comes to shove, they will have to begin thinking about rolling blackouts.