Current through Reg. 50, No. 13; March 28, 2025
(a) Application. This section applies to the
independent organization certified under PURA §39.151 for the Electric
Reliability Council of Texas (ERCOT) region, a transmission and distribution
utility (TDU), and a retail electric provider (REP) providing demand response
using a responsive device program to residential customers.
(b) Definition. When used in this section,
the term "smart responsive appliance or device" has the following meaning
unless the context indicates otherwise. An appliance or device that may be
enabled to allow its electric usage or electric usage of connected appliances
or devices to be adjusted remotely.
(c) Responsive Device Program. A REP may
offer a responsive device program that offers an incentive to residential
customers with smart responsive appliances or devices to reduce electricity
consumption.
(1) A REP may contract with a
demand response provider to provide a responsive device program.
(2) A responsive device program must:
(A) allow demand response participation by
residential customers where reasonably available, including during the summer
and winter seasons;
(B) be capable
of responding to an emergency energy alert issued by the independent
organization certified under Public Utility Regulatory Act (PURA) §39.151
for the ERCOT region;
(C) ensure
that the program does not adversely impact the needs of a critical care
residential customer or chronic condition residential customer as those terms
are defined in §
25.497 of this title, relating to
Critical Load Industrial Customers, Critical Load Public Safety Customers,
Critical Care Residential Customers, and Chronic Condition Residential
Customers; and
(D) not allow
participation of a residential customer that is enrolled in an emergency
program such as the Emergency Response Service under §
25.507 of this title, relating to
Electric Reliability Council of Texas (ERCOT) Emergency Response Service (ERS),
or a TDU load management program under §§
25.181-183 of this
title.
(E) specify that
participation in the responsive device program expires:
(i) if participation in the responsive device
program is offered or included as part of a product or plan for retail electric
service, with the term of the contract; or
(ii) if the responsive device program is
offered as a separate product or plan or as an additional service, on the date
consistent with the REP's disclosures to the customer regarding the term of the
responsive device program, but must end when the REP that enrolled the retail
customer is no longer the REP of record for that
customer.
(d) Average total residential load reduction
goal.
(1) No later than 45 days following the
end of each calendar quarter, a REP providing a responsive device program
within the ERCOT region must submit to ERCOT, on a form prescribed by ERCOT,
the following information for each calendar month in the quarter:
(A) the electric service identifier (ESI ID)
for each residential customer with smart appliances or devices enrolled in each
responsive device program offered by the REP; and
(B) the date of each demand response event,
including each demand response event start time and stop time and the ESI IDs
deployed for each event.
(2) No later than March 31 of each calendar
year, for each daily ERCOT peak demand period and each ERCOT energy emergency
alert period, ERCOT must publicly file with the commission the following
information for the twelve-month period ending on November 30 of the previous
calendar year. For purposes of this paragraph, the load associated with any
premise with behind-the-meter photovoltaic (PV) generation will be calculated
as the sum of the premise's import from the grid plus any PV generation less
any export to the grid.
(A) the date of the
period, the time of the period, and the hourly and 15-minute interval values of
load and net load during the period;
(B) the aggregated hourly and 15-minute
interval actual metered load of all the residential customers enrolled in a
responsive device program during the ERCOT peak demand period or energy
emergency alert period; and
(C) for
each day for which ERCOT has received notice of a REP responsive device program
deployment and for each ERCOT energy emergency alert period:
(i) the estimated hourly and 15-minute
interval load reduction by all residential customers enrolled in a responsive
device program during the ERCOT peak demand period or energy emergency alert
period;
(ii) the estimated hourly
and 15-minute interval load reduction by all customers identified in clause (i)
of this subparagraph that were deployed at any point during the ERCOT peak
demand period or energy emergency alert period;
(iii) the aggregated hourly and 15-minute
interval actual metered load of all customers enrolled in a responsive device
program that were deployed at any point during the ERCOT peak demand period or
energy emergency alert period; and
(iv) the total number of customers deployed
at any point during each interval.
(3) The average total residential load
reduction goal is 0.25 (i.e., a 20 percent reduction in load by participating
residential customers).
(A) The goal is
calculated as a ratio by dividing the load reduced by all responsive device
programs during an ERCOT peak demand period by the total amount of demand of
all residential customers participating in a responsive device program during
that ERCOT peak demand period.
(B)
On or before June 30 of each even-numbered year, commission staff will review
the data received from ERCOT under paragraph (2) of this subsection to assess
the effectiveness of the responsive device programs offered by REPs and whether
the average total residential load reduction goal under paragraph (3) of this
subsection is being achieved. Commission staff will file a recommendation in
Project 56966 on whether the commission should adjust the goal.
(C) The commission will consider commission
staff's recommendation under subparagraph (B) of this paragraph and determine
whether to update the goal.
(4) For the purposes of this section, an
ERCOT peak demand period is an hour with the daily peak value of net load,
where net load is calculated as defined in ERCOT protocols.
(e) Confidentiality. ERCOT must treat the
information submitted by a REP under subsection (d) of this section as
protected information as defined by the ERCOT protocols. The requirements of
this section neither authorize nor require a REP to publicly disclose
proprietary customer information.
(f) Funding. A REP may receive funding for a
responsive device program through an energy efficiency incentive program
established under §
25.181 of this title, relating to
Energy Efficiency Goal, if the responsive device program complies with the
evaluation, measurement, and verification requirements of §
25.181 of this title, and if the
smart responsive appliances or devices meet the requirements of subsection (c)
of this section. A transmission and distribution utility required to provide an
energy efficiency incentive program under PURA §39.905 may use up to 10
percent of its demand response budget for responsive device programs offered by
a REP under subsection (c) of this section.
(g) Additional information. Commission staff
may request additional data from REPs and ERCOT regarding the responsive device
program under subsection (c) of this section to assist in evaluating and
revising the goal under subsection (d) of this section.
