Drought Could Pose Problems for Texas Power Plants

by Kate Galbraith
September 16, 2011
14 Comments

If the drought in Texas continues well into next spring and summer, some power plants could be forced to stop operating, the state grid operator said.

"If we don't get any rain between now and next summer, there's potentially several thousand megawatts of generation that wouldn't be available and would be affected," said Kent Saathoff, an official with the Electric Reliability Council of Texas, the grid operator, in an interview on Thursday. (To provide context, ERCOT manages about 84,400 megawatts of generation capacity. Also, the coal-plant closures and changes announced earlier this week by the power ...

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Comments (14)

September 16, 2011 @ 3:59 p.m.

Jill Meredith Bergene via Texas Tribune on Facebook

If we don't get rain by then, I'm moving back home.
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September 16, 2011 @ 4 p.m.

Tim Thomas via Texas Tribune on Facebook

This seems like a fantastic time for them to start investing in solar and wind power so that they don't have issues next year.
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September 16, 2011 @ 4:05 p.m.

Alex Tango Fuego via Texas Tribune on Facebook

Read later...
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September 16, 2011 @ 4:11 p.m.

Cheryl El-Sabagh via Texas Tribune on Facebook

Exactly what I was thinking Tim Thomas
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September 16, 2011 @ 4:19 p.m.

Sylvia Jacobson via Texas Tribune on Facebook

Incentives for solar roofing, investments in wind turbines.
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September 16, 2011 @ 4:19 p.m.

Sylvia Jacobson via Texas Tribune on Facebook

Reposting.
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September 16, 2011 @ 4:36 p.m.

Alicea Fletcher via Texas Tribune on Facebook

Another reason to live off the grid
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September 16, 2011 @ 4:43 p.m.

Tim Covington via Texas Tribune on Facebook

Tim Thomas - The problem with wind power is that it produces the least amount of electricity on the days we need it most. Our hottest days are usually the ones with the least wind. And, we really don't have time to develop the solar resources we would need in time.
Don't get me wrong. We need to be developing those alternative resources. But, they won't be here in time.
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September 16, 2011 @ 5:28 p.m.

Michael Giberson via Texas Tribune on Facebook

No need to worry, the EPA wasn't going to let the companies run those power plants anyway. ;-)
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September 16, 2011 @ 5:58 p.m.

Candyce Byrne via Texas Tribune on Facebook

"They won't be here in time" is what "they" always say to keep people from developing what needs to be developed so it will be here in time. Time to be an early adopter.\
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September 16, 2011 @ 9:15 p.m.

John Burton via Texas Tribune on Facebook

Because who would ever have anticipated an extended drought in Texas?
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September 18, 2011 @ 10:47 p.m.

V Marshall

@Tim Thomas Texas already has the most wind generation of any state in the nation.
September 19, 2011 @ 3:58 p.m.

Paul Cauduro via Texas Tribune on Facebook

Texas leads the nation in the amount of electricity produced by combined heat and power (cogeneration). If we moved the gauge from the current 20% generated (about four times the amount we get from wind) to 35% we would save 25 billion gallons of water - an amount equivalent to the water used by ten 500MW coal plants each year. to get the complete report go to www.texaschpi.org
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September 19, 2011 @ 4:11 p.m.

namoyer

I don't believe ERCOT or these electric generators. Expect them to raid groundwater and surface waters under emergency orders issued by Perry and his ilk...