BRYAN, Texas — Bryan Texas Utilities followed ERCOT in its call to conserve energy, but customers like Martin Espinosa don't mind helping.
He sets his thermostat a few degrees higher while away from home, and he says the effort is saving money.
"You save money also because if you put it on high levels like maybe 60° or 65°, your bill is going to be pretty high," Espinosa said.
The company decided to encourage its customers to voluntarily reduce electricity use along with ERCOT, which called for the conservation after record-breaking temperatures and high demand on Sunday.
The company typically sees more demand with excessive heat and even broke a record in usage at 393 megawatts.
BTU Public Information Officer Meagan Brown says the conservation serves as a preventative measure to prevent a grid overload.
"If everybody across Texas does a little, saves a little energy, it makes a big impact," Brown said.
BTU asked residents to try to save as much energy as possible by reducing heat and humidity to keep A/C units from working as hard.
"Cooling and heating are the biggest source of energy usage for your home, so our air conditioners are just having to run pretty constantly and run as hard as possible to keep up with the temperature difference," Brown said.
She recommends setting thermostats at a moderate level or as high as possibly comfortable, keeping the blinds and shades closed, delaying heat and humidity producing chores until the morning or evening like doing laundry and using alternative forms of cooking like microwaves or slow cookers instead of stove tops.
She says residents can also grill outside to keep the heat out entirely.
Espinosa is even encouraging others to join the conservation effort.
"It's good to conserve electricity, especially when kids go to school and parents go to work," Espinosa said.
Energy levels are normal, but ERCOT will issue a weather watch from Aug. 23-27 to monitor grid conditions.