Figure

ERCOT generation by fuel at 5-minute resolution on the record day, July 22, 2026

Solar supplied 30.1 GW in ERCOT's demand-record hour while storage was net charging; the fleet then set its then-record 12,017 MW discharge at 20:24 CT, about eight hours after solar's midday high.

Stacked area chart of ERCOT generation by fuel at 5-minute resolution across July 22, 2026, the record day. Solar rises through the morning to 33.5 GW at 12:39 CT, still supplies 30.1 GW when demand peaks in the hour ending 18:00, and is down to 792 MW by 20:24 CT. The storage band sits below the zero line as net charging through the midday solar peak, most of it under the solar arc, then swings to a net discharge peak of about 12 GW at 20:24 CT. ERCOT's own ESR Integration Report puts that evening's gross discharge at 12,017 MW, a different measurement from the net series plotted here. It was the fleet's all-time record when set and was passed on August 18 and again on August 23, 2026.

This figure is from the ERCOT July 2026 heat-wave case study, a primary-source reconstruction of an all-time demand record crossed on a week without record heat, and what the public record does and does not show about it.

Cite this figure

Corey Balgeman, "ERCOT generation by fuel at 5-minute resolution on the record day, July 22, 2026," Grid Flexibility, 2026. https://gridflexibility.fyi/case-studies/ercot-heat-wave-july-2026/figures/ercot-event-fuel-mix

Licensed CC BY 4.0: free to republish with attribution. License details.

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Last updated: 2026-08-24.