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Residents asked to get through the heat in Houston by conserving power
FOX 26 Reporter Natalie Hee spoke with some residents who say it's not feasible to raise their thermostat to 78 degrees in their home.
HOUSTON - ERCOT is asking Texans to reduce their electric usage as much as possible for the rest of the week. The request comes after ERCOT says there have been a significant number of forced generation outages than usual.
ERCOT said it's unclear why there have been so many forced generation outages, but say they are now conducting an analysis to figure out what happened.
Until then, ERCOT is asking Texans to conserve as much energy as possible by turning off and unplugging any unnecessary appliances; turning off lights and pool pumps, and avoid using large appliances like ovens, washing, machines and dryers.
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ERCOT is also asking for folks to turn the thermostats inside their homes to 78 degrees or higher, as every degree of cooling increases energy usage by 6 to 8%.
However, some Houstonians like Clay Marshall, a West University resident, say they won’t be doing that in these temperatures.
"You just walk outside and just start sweating. just you walk out the door and it just hits you right in the face. 78 degrees? That’s not feasible. In this heat, that’s just not feasible," Marshall said.
"If it set my AC at 78 degrees, the house would get so hot that it couldn’t cool back down. I may look up and it’d be 85, so I couldn’t handle leaving it on 78 degrees all week long; that just wouldn’t fly. Temperature’s just gotten unbearable. I just can’t imagine what it’s going to be like in another month or two months," Marshall continued.
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ERCOT officials said rolling blackouts or power outages are unlikely and would only be utilized in an absolute emergency, last resort situation.