Load Shed Information

The Energy Reliability Council of Texas (ERCOT) was formed to manage the flow of electric power through the electric grid that encompasses nearly 90% of the state of Texas. Over 26 million people rely upon ERCOT to schedule electric power throughout the grid.

Although the ultimate job of ERCOT and Lamar Electric Cooperative is to keep reliable power flowing to our members 24/7, there are the occasional emergencies that force ERCOT to issue Energy Emergency Alerts (EEA). When these occur, levels of conservation are asked of our membership as well as the other 26 million customers that utilize the state’s electric grid. When calls for conservation are unable to cure the issues that the grid is suffering from, ERCOT must issue a call for participants in the grid to have controllable outages, also known as Load Shedding. When this occurs, electric utilities like Lamar Electric Cooperative, must immediately act and start the load shedding process. Lamar follows a set of guidelines to ensure that if load shedding is unavoidable, then our member’s outages will not be long-suffering. When involuntary load shedding is determined by ERCOT, Lamar will send linemen to each of our substations for manual load shedding of feeder breakers. ERCOT will notify Lamar management of how much electrical power load needs to be shed and LEC staff will shed load accordingly on a rolling basis.

  •  Lamar’s Load Shedding process takes into account Critical Loads per PUC Section 38.076, however these loads are not guaranteed an uninterrupted supply of electricity. It is the responsibility of the member to have backup generation for moments when power outages occur.
  •  During Load Shedding events, members that are considered Critical Care or have Chronic Conditions according to PUC Section 38.076, are heavily encouraged to obtain a back-up plan for your needs in the event that power outages occur. Also, we ask members to complete a Life Support Registry form located on the homepage of our website at www.lamarelectric.coop. While completing this form will not guarantee uninterrupted power supply, it will help Lamar update their system.
  • When calls for conservation of electricity are made by ERCOT, Lamar asks that its membership help by conserving electricity in their household. That may be turning the air conditioner off during a Summer Load Shed event or utilizing your gas logs in a Winter event instead of the electric heat. Any type of conservation throughout your home will aid in the process and help alleviate the shedding across the state.
  • When Load Shed events occur, ERCOT is issuing an emergency order. Lamar Electric Cooperative will not have the ability to notify individual members if they may lose power, when they may lose power, or how long the event will last. The duration of events will only last as long as ERCOT is issuing them.

Regardless of the event, Lamar Electric is always committed to safe, reliable and affordable electricity. We will always have staff on stand-by 24/7 to meet the needs of our membership. While Load Shedding events may be out of the hands of Lamar, we will always be in the trenches working to keep the lights on for you.