Texas power grid operator asks residents to conserve power amid searing heat wave
15 June 2021
Texas' power grid operator has asked people to "reduce electric use as much as possible" until Friday following days of searing heat and a "significant number of forced generation outages."
Why it matters: The request by the Electric Reliability Council of Texas (ERCOT) comes months after a deadly winter storm blew out the state's power infrastructure and left millions of Texans without power for days.
- Texas Gov. Greg Abbott (R) last week signed into law a pair of bills aimed at improving the state's main power grid and reforming the agency.
Details: "A significant number of forced generation outages combined with potential record electric use for the month of June has resulted in tight grid conditions," ERCOT said in a statement Monday.
- Roughly "12,000 megawatts of generation were offline Monday, or enough to power 2.4 million homes on a hot summer day," per the Texas Tribune, which notes that ERCOT officials called the power plant outages "unexpected."
What they're saying: Woody Rickerson, vice president of ERCOT's grid planning and operations said in the agency's statement that officials will be "conducting a thorough analysis with generation owners to determine why so many units are out of service."
- "This is unusual for this early in the summer season," Rickerson added.
Transcripts show George Floyd told police "I can't breathe" over 20 times
Section2Newly released transcripts of bodycam footage from the Minneapolis Police Department show that George Floyd told officers he could not breathe more than 20 times in the moments leading up to his death.
Why it matters: Floyd's killing sparked a national wave of Black Lives Matter protests and an ongoing reckoning over systemic racism in the United States. The transcripts "offer one the most thorough and dramatic accounts" before Floyd's death, The New York Times writes.
The state of play: The transcripts were released as former officer Thomas Lane seeks to have the charges that he aided in Floyd's death thrown out in court, per the Times. He is one of four officers who have been charged.
- The filings also include a 60-page transcript of an interview with Lane. He said he "felt maybe that something was going on" when asked if he believed that Floyd was having a medical emergency at the time.
What the transcripts say:
- Floyd told the officers he was claustrophobic as they tried to get him into the squad car.
- The transcripts also show Floyd saying, "Momma, I love you. Tell my kids I love them. I'm dead."
- Former officer Derek Chauvin, who had his knee on Floyd's neck for over eight minutes, told Floyd, "Then stop talking, stop yelling, it takes a heck of a lot of oxygen to talk."
Read the transcripts via DocumentCloud.