State Short on Power

This just in from Austin Energy: An imbalance in the state's electric grid means all providers will have to participate in rolling blackouts.

More info below the fold.

Here is the entire text of the press release from Ed Clark at Austin Energy:

At about 5:40 am ERCOT enacted a system-wide emergency curtailment (EEA-Level 3) due to insufficient on-line generation to meet ERCOT statewide demand. The ERCOT system must shed 1,100 MW. Austin Energy’s share of that 1,100 MW is about 80 MW. This means AE – on a rotating basis- must turn off about 20 circuits (for about 7 minutes at a time) following a pre-designed plan that distributes the circuit outages evenly throughout our service area. A circuit powers between 1,000 - 3,000 customers. The plan avoids critical loads such as hospitals and emergency resources. All generators in ERCOT are required to participate – regardless of whether AE has sufficient power in our community (which we do). This emergency is due to an imbalance in the statewide electric grid between the power being demanded statewide and the generation online at this time. More information as it becomes available.