ERCOT conservation alert: Here's what we know HOUSTON – ERCOT admitted the majority of lost reserve electricity generation on Monday was due to unscheduled maintenance issues. ERCOT said 9,691 megawatts of the total loss on Monday was due to a forced outage, meaning it was unplanned and unexpected. “The number of power plants that were offline for outages was a bit concerning given where we are and the temperatures,” Dr. Joshua Rhodes, a research assistant who studies the Texas Electrical Grid at the University of Austin, said. Rhodes characterized the issue as a “yellow light,” not yet an emergency, but a potential problem if these power generation issues are not rectified before the hottest days of summer arrives.