ERCOT crisis eases: 192,000 powerless, 30 GW of capacity off, prices plunge

Houston — The Electric Reliability Council of Texas said that the energy emergency tied to this week's winter storm would end Feb. 19, as temperatures moderated and the threat of wintery precipitation eased, and as generation was restored, and real-time prices plunged from almost $9,000/MWh at 9 am CT (1500 GMT) to less than $37/MWh at 9:45 CT.

In a news release sent Feb. 19, ERCOT said it expected to exit emergency conditions later in the morning.

"There is enough generation on the electric system to allow us to begin to return to more normal operating conditions," said Dan Woodfin, ERCOT senior director of system operations.

Not additional capacity-related outages were needed overnight to keep the power supply and demand in balance, and "only a few generating units tripped," ERCOT said.

As of 7:30 am CT Feb. 19, about 34 GW of generation remained on forced outage due to the winter weather, of which 20 GW was thermal and the rest wind and solar.

As of 9:45 am CT, ERCOT's wind fleet was generating 3.9 GW, and its utility-scale solar capacity was generating 3.2 GW. In its final Seasonal Assessment of Resource Adequacy for the winter of 2020-21, ERCOT anticipated no more than 6.5 GW of wind and 304 MW of solar would be available at winter peak.

CustomWeather projected population-weighted temperatures to average 28.5 degrees Fahrenheit on Feb. 19, up from 27.6 degrees F Feb. 18, 25 degrees F Feb. 17 and below 20 degrees F for the previous three days.

As of about 10 am CT Feb. 19, The Weather Channel reported temperatures of 28 degrees F in Austin, 27 degrees in Dallas, 32 degrees in Houston, and 30 degrees in San Antonio.