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Stop Blasting Your Damn A/C, Texas: We May Reach A Record For Electricity Use Today

By Richard Connelly in Texas

Wednesday, Jul. 8 2009 @ 3:02PM

ERCOT, the cooperative that manages the Texas power grid (And hey -- Texas is the only state with its own power grid!! When the revolution comes and New York and LA are out of power, we'll still have juice!!) is warning customers to limit their electricity use between from 3-7 p.m. today (OK, so maybe we won't have juice.)

Three years ago Texas set a record for single-day electricity use with 62,339 megawatts; today may end up topping 62,000 again.

"The peak electricity demand could be close to 62,000 megawatts today, although a sudden rain or cloud cover over a large metropolitan area could reduce temperatures and electricity demand," said ERCOT's Kent Saathoff. "Also, we typically see a reduction in electricity load after 3 p.m. when demand response programs on the retail provider side start kicking in."

ERCOT is not anticipating any "electricity emergencies," but a couple of unplanned outages (troubles at some plant, for instance) are bringing them close enough to issue the warning.

So Texas, do all you can do. Move the thermostat from 67 degrees to 69. We all have to make sacrifices.

Read a book instead of watching TV. Make a sandwich instead of using the microwave.

But for God's sake, whatever you do, stay on the computer and keep checking blogs. It's the only way to find out about whether we're having an emergency or not.