ERCOT Generation by Fuel and DAH Load: Jan 2009 to June 2024 (20x)

The Electric Reliability Council of Texas (ERCOT) manages the state’s power grid and serves over 25 million customers, or about 90% of the population in Texas. The state is the largest electricity producer and consumer in the nation. The tremendous growth in wind capacity in Texas also makes it the largest wind power producing state. A significant fraction of power demand is met by natural gas. Today, natural gas-fired power plants produce about half of ERCOT’s total electricity, followed by wind (20%), coal (16%), and nuclear (10%). In contrast, in 2009, natural gas provided about 48% of ERCOT’s total electricity output while coal and nuclear supplied 35% and 10%, respectively. Wind only constituted 5% of the fuel mix that year.
It is also important to recognize the seasonal and daily volatility of electricity, especially in a system like ERCOT where intermittent renewables like wind and solar are becoming increasingly important.
This time-lapse videos above show the daily electric generation by fuel within ERCOT from January 1, 2009, to June 2024 and will be updated twice a year. The chart displays the generation data at the 15-minute interval and is overlaid with the day ahead load forecast (projected demand) beginning June 5, 2011.
Generation resources include coal, natural gas combined cycle, all other natural gas, nuclear, petroleum, and renewables including hydro, wind, solar, and others, categorized by the legend.
We produced two versions of the time-lapse:
• Master (2x): Over 15 years of daily snapshots in 28 minutes.
• Fast-speed version (20x): Over 15 years of daily snapshots in just three minutes.
The full time-series from January 1, 2009, to June 2024, runs about 28 minutes. Users can quickly pinpoint a specific date during the time frame or utilize the time stamps below to reference major events. For convenience, we have also developed a version that concentrates the data into a 3-minute video to highlight the growth and evolution of the Texas fuel mix.
Below are the time stamps of major events impacting the ERCOT grid:
• 2011 cold snap - Master: 2/1/2011 at 03:40
• 2018 record heat within the time frame of the data set - Master: 7/23/2018 at 17:40
• 2020 July 11-14 record heat observed in Border and Del Rio, Texas - Master: At 21:13
• 2021 winter storm Uri - Master: 2/10/2021 at 22:15
• 2023 record peak demand - Master: 8/10/2023 at 26:44
The data is publicly available on ERCOT’s website.
See ERCOT's latest Monthly Outlook for Resource Adequacy (MORA) (replace with this URL: www.ercot.com/...