Hourly load in Electric Reliability Council of Texas territory averaged a record 74.5 GW the week of Aug. 22, the Energy Information Administration said in a Sept. 3 report, shortly after ERCOT reached a new peak demand record of 91 GW on July 22.
“Sustained high temperatures have contributed to persistently high electricity demand in [ERCOT],” EIA said. “The past six weeks, from the week ending July 25 through the week ending August 29, have all exceeded the 2023 record.”
EIA said the hourly average for the week ending Aug. 22 “was 10% greater than the highest hourly average for any week in summer of 2025 and 6% greater than the previous record of 70 GW set in 2023.”
ERCOT’s long-term load forecast projects continually increasing peak loads, which reach 154 GW by 2035, though a recent report from Ascend Analytics forecast a peak load of 120 GW in 2030.
The July 22 peak was “primarily met with generation from natural gas (48%) and solar (32%) resources according to data reported to us,” EIA said in an Aug. 3 report. Texas has around 53.5 GW of solar capacity, according to the Solar Energy Industries Association.
“When PJM neared its peak demand record, they declared an energy emergency,” said Doug Lewin, Google’s Texas lead for energy market development, in a July 30 X post. “Texas has blown past its pre-2026 record 7 times this month, [including] today. No emergencies, not even close. The difference? Solar,” he said, noting that Texas’ solar resources had reached a deployment record of 35 GW that day.
Lewin noted in an Aug. 16 post on X that ERCOT projected peaks of more than 90 GW “every day this week as high temps are expected to be consistently [over 100 degrees],” but no shortages were expected.
“Based on expected weather conditions, ERCOT anticipates there will be sufficient generation to meet demand this summer,” ERCOT said on its website’s Summer 2026 section.
“Amid the record-high demand, ERCOT is auditing proposals from data centers to connect to the grid, following Texas Governor Greg Abbott’s recent moratorium on new data center interconnections,” EIA said in its Sept. 3 report.
ERCOT aims to complete its audit of around 300 proposals by December.
