ERCOT Reviews

I got a notification of a “this app Emergency Notification Test” so I tried to open ERCOT and it crashes and closes. Then I updated ERCOT and same happens. Rebooted iPad and iPhone. App opens and crashes. I got a notification “End of ERECOT Emergecy Notification Test” and ERCOT still fails to open. Just crashes.
So much for the help this app, given my power was out for days in February 2021 it would be essential that you create a working app to notify people when you roll the power out for several days.

App opens and crashes. Not helpful.

Federal regulations would require weatherproofing gas lines, but Texas has their own power grid to avoid federal regulations. With power sources frozen, Texans get to experience hours of power outages during a record low temperatures.
Other states don’t shutdown power when it’s cold out, but Texas is too arrogant and wants to keep doing its own thing
Do Texans really want to freeze to death to “Own the Libs”? I hope not.

As for ERCOT , I agree there should be more gridlines on the axis for time on the chart

So this is what this app does with its time, is it? Creating a silly,
worthless app so they can pretend they aren’t sitting around picking their noses. My local utility, CoServ, is equally clueless. Sending an email to all its customers, recommending they download this stupid app. It’s a miracle Texas made it through February. I guess that’s what’s to be expected though. The governor blaming windmills for the loss of power, like a modern day Don Quixote. Ted Cruz heading for Cancun while his Texas brethren are freezing to death. Yup. That’s Texass alright.

These “rolling” black outs sure did fix everything. Fixed it so good that I no longer have to worry about my power bill! I’m going off the grid after this dumb fiasco. Sitting here in a house that’s at 20 degrees, and absolutely no water because they can’t even turn on power long enough for the water pumps to work.

Updated within the last couple days. Didn’t think much about it. Received “emergency notification test” just now. App crashed and didn’t open when I tapped the notification. Unable to open app at all. What a mess.

With millions of people without power, there is no possible way that the demand for power is below capacity. The fact ERCOT reports demand always being lower than current capacity is laughable.

However ERCOT does not crash and is easy to navigate. Please fix the data problems!

How can you’ve a chart on your home page with no numbers on vertical axis? Such a poor design.

It would be great to see more info such as comparison with last week or last year so that one can see the trend ..

Need to have axis labels on the chart. Be nice if you could see real time what is producing the power broken down by nuclear, natural gas, coal, wind, solar. And see the tends of the historical data. As it ERCOT stands right now it’s functional but nothing special.

With new release, the current demand value is not shown. What happened to that?

There’s no reason at all that the Wrcot app should be able to copy data from the messages app... but every time I switch back to ERCOT I get an alert “this app Mobile App pasted from messages”. Big privacy issue there.

Love the information y’all use of MW usage, solar, etc.

Totally unprepared for a forecasted historic week for all of Texas. Going through rolling blackouts and many friends across the state are going through 35-52° ambient temps in their homes because of no power. But at least we get this outdated app.

Includes too much irrelevant data. I only care about my loadzone, not all of them. I only need to see prices for one. Why does ERCOT show all? Who is this built for that this is helpful? Waste of time.

Received a pop up notification of the test. Tried to open ERCOT and ERCOT kept crashing.

What’s the point of ERCOT? I don’t care about the grid as a whole, I care about my current area and when I will have power restored.

Why isn’t there a 5min price? Why only 15mins prices?

Would be great to see forecasted wind and actual wind output on a chart.

Clean and concise info, easy to understand system conditions, decent ( if somewhat generic) conservation advice.

Needed Tweaks:
1. Change the color or linetype of the forecast peak - the solid bright blue line almost completely obscures the pale green color of the current system load line, making it very hard to tell at a glance what current load is. +1star if done.
2. Offer historic views beyond 1day, perhaps the past 30 days history and forecast conditions for the next 30 days; as another reviewer said, information is good and keeps the consumer aware of what to expect. +1/2 star if done.
3. Give at least two "push notification" options, with one of those options being a "critical" alert as opposed to warning or informational alerts. If the grid is in danger of (or going into) rolling blackout conditions, that's critical. If you just want to tell folks to "conserve because continued high heat will make conditions tight", like I got 5 minutes after installing ERCOT , that's more warning - and little I can do about it beyond measures already taken with automated thermostats and such. +1/2 star if done.

After the update, ERCOT just closes down.

Whoever came up with this non-zoomable graph with no time notches except for 12AM should be fired. Can’t believe we are wasting taxpayers’ money on this joke of an app.

Their system is broken

Finally an this app app! Love it. Thanks guys.

Thank ERCOT gods!

Hopefully this achievement by this app will show other ISOs & RTOs the benefits of having mobile apps with system wide alerts. I have a few requests and suggestions, please add nodal pricing points and ultimately a simple DB query function for source and sink of PTPs as you can't mouse over those points on the Web Contour Map. Also, a list of scheduled outages and line work would easily be scraped off your market data website. Or if it's easier list the DA congestion costs built into DA prices. Then finally I see a huge synergy with my firm and the retail ESCOs out there and don't want to give away any proprietary info but I am able to generate revenues for this app by providing customers the available 3rd party providers through my DOE funded efforts!

Received an e-mail from the State of Texas State Operations Center (SOC) at work today with the press release for ERCOT. Downloaded it and am fairly impressed; I like transparency when it comes to utilities and enjoy having situation awareness.

ERCOT gives usage and forecast usage, as well as great tips on how to conserve energy (AND save money). I'm looking forward to what types of notifications it will send; according to the press release, when this app forecasts issues with high demand, they will notify app users ... and users can reference their conservation tips.

More features could be added if utility companies/cooperatives share their outage data or other pertinent info with this app.

Overall good delivery of Actual usage vs forecast data, but just needs a prettier way of delivering to the user.

I used v1 of ERCOT, and I can't believe the massive improvement with the new release! This rebuilt app is actually interesting, usable and informative in this latest incarnation. You can't even fairly call it an "update" - more like a complete do-over. Thanks to the team that built this improved version I can actually see what's happening with demand and conditions, wholesale prices, alerts/notices and more, plus it's super easy on the eyes (the old app was, well, ugly). Nice UI! I especially like the graph / gauge home page switch. Thanks this app!

What can I say. Learning about the Texas power grid was never on the top of my list, but seeing how much attention this app has put into designing ERCOT for the public has changed my tune for good. I love the interactive push notifications that allow me to take action on conserving energy as well as see who else has joined the cause. Not to mention ERCOT is absolutely beautiful to look at. Way to go! Highly recommend!

ERCOT is really interesting and easy to use. This is a big improvement from the last version.

I see the "Normal Conditions" banner at the top. I assume that banner will change to reflect abnormal conditions. Looking forward to seeing the alerts in action.

Hope it's performance will be better--faster!