“When we faced severe weather conditions earlier this year and experienced power outages, I promised you as Mayor that I would be transparent about any other potential weather-related issues with Austin Energy and our Texas electric grid, Electric Reliability Council of Texas (ERCOT).  Given our unprecedented heat this summer and temperatures that continue to challenge all of us, we continue to experience requests from ERCOT to conserve energy,” Watson said. 

“I appreciate that sometimes, given the frequency of the conservation requests, it may feel like too much and that, understandably, you might believe that there isn’t any imminent cause for concern.  However, tonight was an example of what can happen at the spur of the moment. ERCOT has three stages of what they call Energy Emergency Alert Conditions (EEA).  They went from conservation requests to EEA Stage 2.  I’m pleased to report that, at this time, we are back down to normal grid operations and there is no need to activate another stage. I also appreciate though that it is important that we keep you up to date as quickly as feasibly possible so that you can react as needed to help us, as a community, get through this difficult time.  We still have a few weeks where we could experience a rough road ahead and need to be prepared.  Thank you in advance for everything you do to get us through this difficult time.”