Texas power prices spike more than 400% in one day as bomb cyclone sends energy demand soaring
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- In some parts of Texas, prices for power to be delivered on Friday evening more than quintupled, topping $500 per megawatt-hour.
- On Friday night, temperatures in Dallas, Austin and San Antonio are expected to dip below 20 degrees.
- Outage data shows roughly 53,000 Texas residents were experiencing a loss of power on Thursday.
Forecasts for below-freezing temperatures in Texas sent power prices surging more than 400% in the span of just one day.
In some parts of the state, prices for power to be delivered on Friday evening more than quintupled from the prior day, topping $500 per megawatt-hour, according to Bloomberg.
On Friday night, temperatures in Dallas, Austin and San Antonio are expected to dip below 20 degrees. Meanwhile, Houston will reach the low 20s, and even south Texas will be in the mid 20s.
Current expectations project electricity usage will climb to 70.9 gigawatts on Friday, according to the Electric Reliability Council of Texas, surpassing the previous record of 69.8 gigawatts. Put into context, one gigawatt is enough energy to power roughly 200,000 homes.
The cold spell is a callback to February of 2021, when a power grid meltdown killed 200 people in the state while outages forced some Texans to burn furniture in their fireplaces to stay warm.
Officials remain confident that the power grid can handle the increased demand. But the grid has already come under strain. Outage data showed roughly 53,000 Texas residents were experiencing a loss of power on Thursday night.
State regulators have taken steps to winterize the necessary equipment to prepare for the freezing weather, although some critics argue more is needed to prepare the state's power grid.