Texas is having a notably calm summer this year. Although there have been a few days with high prices in either the day-ahead or the real time market, as well as some days with price volatility in real time, there has been a clear difference from the severe scarcity and volatility of last summer. One of the key drivers of the reduction in prices is a decrease in net load, caused by several contributing factors that will be discussed in this report. Mathematically, net load is overall load minus generation from wind and solar, and we see all three of those components as playing a role in the year-on-year net load changes.

Figure 1 | ERCOT Actual and Difference from Normal (DFN) Temperatures, July-August 2024