The Texas power grid is in pretty good shape, especially in contrast to other sections of the United States that didn't fare so well over the past weekend.
There were some truly hot temperatures last Friday, when the Pennsylvania New Jersey Maryland Interconnection system (PJM) called on volunteers to cut back electricity usage because there was more of a power drain from air conditioners pulling in power than might have been expected.
And when strong storms moved in on Saturday, well more than a million people saw their electricity get knocked off line, with many of them having to tolerate sweltering temperatures for another day or two before the power returned.
University of Houston Energy Fellow Dr. Ed Hirs says Texas has had similar problems in the past.
"The different market models that these grids use, they really only pay the electricity generators if they're operating," so that makes it a cost-savings if power is turned off until needed. The problem can be what happens when you turn the generator on and it doesn't work?
Here in Texas the power grid is being carefully maintained, and "here we're fine for the summer, the issue may rise again in the winter, if we get another winter storm like we got in 2021."
But overall, "Texas should be good. PJM, and these kinds of grids, have kind of hit the wall in terms of what their market models will allow," and Texas got there in 2021, then California hit its wall in 2022, Hirs says.