Homes and businesses in Texas used record amounts of power on Wednesday and are expected to use even more in the coming days as consumers crank up their air conditioners to escape a brutal heat wave, according to the operator of much of the state’s power grid. To keep those air conditioners humming, Texas utilities are buying electricity from all sources, keeping power prices near seven-year highs hit earlier in the week. The Electric Reliability Council of Texas (ERCOT) said demand reached 72,192 megawatts on Wednesday, topping the prior all-time high of 71,110 in August 2016. One megawatt can power about 1,000 U.S. homes. Wednesday’s peak was shy of the grid’s forecast high of 72,756 MW for this summer, but that is not expected to last long. “We are headed into even more extreme temperatures than we’ve seen in the past few days. Everyone in the ERCOT […]