Subject: this will make you feel cooler
texans bake as electricity usage hits record
by today , a " cool " spell was expected to grip texas , plunging temperatures
down to around 100 . a nice respite from the 105 - plus temperatures that
stilled the state and sent electricity peak loads to new records last week
for the third time this year .
the electric reliability council of texas ( ercot ) , an industry coalition that
administers the state ' s power grid and serves 85 % of the state ' s electric
load , reported friday that preliminary numbers indicated that electricity
usage reached an all - time peak high for the third time in 44 days last
thursday , with texans using 57 , 731 mw of power . of course , that was before
the weekend , when temperatures were expected to climb as high as 112 at some
locations in the state - - - just in time for labor day picnics .
the new usage record last thursday broke the previous record set the day
before , on wednesday , when consumers used 55 , 994 mw of power . the two broken
records broke a record set just six weeks earlier , july 19 , when texans used
55 , 796 mw of power .
peak load in august 1999 was 54 , 849 mw of power , while peak load in august
1998 was 53 , 689 mw of power .