By Scott DiSavino
(Reuters) - The Texas power-grid operator forecast electricity use will break the peak demand record for June on Thursday before rising even higher and topping the July record next week as homes and businesses crank up air conditioners to escape a heat wave.
Extreme weather reminds consumers of the fatal freeze in February 2021 that left millions of Texans without power, water and heat for days and a brutal heat wave in August 2020 that forced the California power grid operator to impose rotating outages that affected about 800,000 customers over two days.
The Electric Reliability Council of Texas (ERCOT), which operates most of the power grid for 27 million customers, said the system was operating normally with enough supply available to meet expected demand over the next week.
High temperatures in Houston, the state's biggest city, will rise from 95 degrees Fahrenheit (35 Celsius) on Thursday to 99 F on Monday, July 1, according to AccuWeather meteorologists.
Even though that is only slightly over the city's normal high of 93 F at this time of year, AccuWeather said it will feel more like 108 F on Thursday and 110 F on July 1 when considering humidity and other factors.
After breaking peak-demand records several times in April and May, ERCOT projected power demand would rise from 78,947 megawatts (MW) on Wednesday to 81,027 megawatts (MW) on Thursday, which would top the 80,787-MW record for June set in 2023.
ERCOT forecast demand would reach 83,111 MW on July 1, which would break the 83,047-MW record for July set in 2023.
The grid's all-time peak was 85,508 MW on Aug. 10, 2023.
Analysts expect ERCOT electricity use will top that all-time high this summer due to economic and population growth in Texas and fast-rising demand for more power from data centers that run artificial intelligence and cryptocurrency mining.
One megawatt can power 800 homes on a normal day but as few as 250 on a hot summer day in Texas.
Despite the heat, next-day power prices at the ERCOT North Hub, which includes Dallas, fell about 32% to $37 per megawatt hour for Thursday, down from a one-month high of $55 for Wednesday, according to LSEG pricing data.
That compares with an average of $35 per MWh so far in June, $59 in May, $31 so far this year, $80 in 2023 and $66 over the prior five years (2018-2022).
(Reporting by Scott DiSavino; Editing by Aurora Ellis)