Tesla Asks Texas Customers to Avoid Charging During Peak Hours

­In an effort to relieve pressure on the power grid and possibly help prevent Texas blackouts, Tesla is imploring its customers to avoid charging during peak hours.

The Austin-based automaker and energy company sent out a message using their in-car notification system:

“A heat wave is expected to impact the grid in Texas over the next few days. The grid operator recommends to avoid charging during peak hours between 3pm and 8pm, if possible, to help statewide efforts to manage demand.”

And as fansite Drive Tesla Canada points out, this isn’t the first time Tesla has communicated directly with its customers like that – they previously did so during the pandemic to make them aware of free Supercharging.

Nor is this the first time a heatwave has put added strain on the grid, causing rolling blackouts in the Lone Star State and, more commonly, the most populous state in the Union, California.

Back in the summer of 2020, with the dual culprits of a heatwave and everyone being quarantined at home with the AC blasting, the California Independent System Operator had to “Stage 3” emergency and trigger “load interruptions,” leaving about 4 million people without power on a particular Friday evening.

And that was just one instance of many.

More recently, the Electric Reliability Council of Texas (ERCOT), the state’s power grid operator, pleaded with consumers to help manage grid strain between 2-8pm.

A week ago, amidst a sweltering heat wave, power demand reached a new high of 78.3 gigawatts, and it didn’t help that wind generation came in at less than 10% of its capacity.

Apparently this was only the 4th time ERCOT has asked customers to curb electricity use, with the previous three instances coming in February 2011, October 2014 and February 2021.

And as for the cause of all this? Well, that’s beyond the scope and purview of this publication....