High temperatures will place a greater strain on the Texas power grid.

According to new reports from Texan power authorities, the rising temperatures that will accompany this year’s summer season could lead to record-breaking levels of power consumption throughout the state. According to the Electric Reliability Council of Texas, the grid has been in a state of nonstop power generation for the past 17 days, forgoing maintenance in order to ensure the rising demand for power is maintained.

Meanwhile, a report from the Summer Seasonal Assessment of Resource Adequacy has presented estimates of Texas’ potential power usage, assuming higher temperatures this summer over last summer. SARA has forecasted that, at the peak of the season, the power grid could see a maximum usage of 77,317 megawatts of power, exceeding the previous record of 74,800 megawatts set in the summer of 2019.

In spite of their warning of potential emergency conditions and requests to Texan citizens to conserve power where possible, ERCOT has assured that they have enough power generation capacity to meet that maximum and then some. Many Texas residents remain skeptical of the safety of the system since the major grid freeze that occurred in February of 2021. The Texas state government ordered a series of overhauls on the grid to ensure a disaster of that magnitude wouldn’t happen again, though the current status of the grid in relation to these overhauls is not avaialble.