Gov. Greg Abbott touts Texas power grid’s readiness heading into fall, election season

Gov. Greg Abbott spoke at a Feb. 1 press conference about preparations for a projected winter storm. In a press release Tuesday, the governor shared a seasonal report to highlight what is expected to be a stable fall season for the power grid. (Credit: Lauren Witte/The Texas Tribune)

Gov. Greg Abbott said Tuesday that the Texas power grid is prepared for the fall months and referenced a new seasonal forecast by the state’s grid operator, which typically does not draw much attention to its fall and spring grid assessments because of the more mild temperatures during those seasons.

Tuesday’s new forecast by the Electric Reliability Council of Texas showed that there should be plenty of power supply to meet demand in October and November. It also showed that many Texas power plants are scheduled to be offline this fall for maintenance work. Texas power plants usually plan to go down in the fall and spring for repairs ahead of the more extreme temperatures in winter and summer, when Texans crank up their heat and air conditioning and raise demand for power.