Texas braces for more summer electricity alerts

Straining grid: Transmission towers run through a field in Texas. Ercot has asked power companies to postpone scheduled maintenance to help alleviate potential setbacks as temperatures have risen. — AFP

Austin: The Electric Reliability Council of Texas (Ercot) has warned reserve margins will be squeezed this week as temperatures rise and it may need to instruct generators to postpone non-urgent maintenance.

Ercot is the independent system operator for most of Texas, managing the flow of power to more than 27 million customers representing about 90% of state-wide load.