Texas winter storm: Monitor ERCOT's power grid conditions in real time

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Eyes are on the Electric Reliability Council of Texas and the state's power grid ahead of this weekend's winter storm.

ERCOT said earlier this week that expect ample supply to meet power demands this winter.

Texans can monitor the power grid in real time and ERCOT has an alert system in place that sends notifications if the grid is seeing high demand or lowered reserves.

How do I monitor the Texas power grid in real-time?

ERCOT has a live dashboard that offers information on a variety of power-related resources including current demand, current power reserves and the condition of the grid.

As of Thursday afternoon, the current grid conditions are operating under green, or normal conditions, meaning there is enough power to meet the current demand.

ERCOT dashboard

Yellow indicates voluntary power conservation when demand is higher and reserves are lower.

Orange indicates that the grid has the potential to enter emergency operations.

What happens if ERCOT goes into emergency mode?

ERCOT has three levels of energy emergency indicated by either red or black.

Emergency level 1

A level one emergency is triggered when power reserves fall below 2,500 megawatts and are expected to remain below that threshold for 30 minutes. No controlled outages are expected at level one.

Emergency level 2

Emergency level two is initiated when power reserves fall below 2,000 megawatts and are expected to remain below for 30 minutes. Controlled outages are not expected at this level, but are possible.

Emergency level 3

Emergency level three is when reserves fall below 1,500 megawatts and are expected to remain below for 30 minutes. Under these conditions, controlled outages are happening across residential, commercial and industrial customers.

More information about what happens when ERCOT enters emergency mode can be found here.