Let’s All Be Thankful We Don’t Have to Deal With Ercot in El Paso

While the rest of Texas is being asked to conserve power to avoid more rolling blackouts, El Paso is sitting pretty with El Paso Electric.

In case you haven't been outside in the past week or so, it's really flipping out. Like, stupid hot. We're seeing videos of people cooking eggs, cookies, and more on the hot asphalt or cars outside. The weather has been consistently hitting 100 degrees or more every day and it's only going to get hotter.

The weather won't be lower than 100 degrees for the next week, even peaking at 105 and 107 degrees Saturday and Sunday. With no signs of the intense heat subsiding, many Texans are spending more time indoors with the AC cranked up to try and cool down. But after the deadly freeze in Texas, many are worried about whether the Electric Reliability Council of Texas, ERCOT, can handle this heatwave.

And it looks like people are worried for good reason.

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We reported this week that ERCOT is asking Texans on their grid to conserve energy during this heatwave so cities can avoid rolling blackouts. Some cities are already seeing rolling blackouts like my sister in Austin who woke up to her power out yesterday morning. While some cities are bracing for potential blackouts soon, El Paso has El Paso Electric and they've been fielding calls from concerned customers wondering if we will be seeing rolling blackouts as well.

El Paso Electric put a post on Facebook letting customers know they are not expecting to have the same issue facing ERCOT right now:

"ERCOT's announcement yesterday was triggered by the anticipated heat they could experience over the next several days and the concern for producing enough power to meet their customer demand. At this time, #EPElectric is not anticipating the same issue. We do of course always encourage our customers to conserve energy where possible so they can help save on their bill and to help reduce strain on the grid during peak demand in the day. If this circumstance were to change, we would notify our customers through a formal announcement."

Once again, not being connected to the ERCOT power grid is why El Paso won't be facing some of the electricity issues many other areas of Texas will have. Maybe we all owe El Paso Electric a thank you card.