Current through Reg. 50, No. 13; March 28, 2025
(a) Applicability. This section applies to
the Electric Reliability Council of Texas (ERCOT). It also applies to
transmission service providers (TSPs) and transmission service customers, as
defined in §
25.5 of this title (relating to
Definitions), with respect to interactions with ERCOT. For the purpose of this
section and §
25.362 of this title (relating to
Electric Reliability Council of Texas (ERCOT) Governance), an ERCOT rule is a
market protocol, operating guide, market guide, or other procedure that
constitutes a statement of general policy and that has an impact on the
governance of the organization or on reliability, settlement, customer
registration, or access to the transmission system in the ERCOT
region.
(b) Functions. ERCOT shall
perform the functions of an independent organization under the Public Utility
Regulatory Act (PURA) §39.151 to ensure access to the transmission and
distribution systems for all buyers and sellers of electricity on
nondiscriminatory terms; ensure the reliability and adequacy of the regional
electrical network; ensure that information relating to a customer's choice of
retail electric provider is conveyed in a timely manner to the persons who need
that information; and ensure that electricity production and delivery are
accurately accounted for among the generators and wholesale buyers and sellers
in the region. ERCOT shall:
(1) administer,
on a daily basis, the operational and market functions of the ERCOT system,
including procuring and deploying ancillary services, scheduling resources and
loads, and managing transmission congestion, as set forth in this chapter,
commission orders, and ERCOT rules;
(2) administer settlement and billing for
services provided by ERCOT, including assessing creditworthiness of market
participants and establishing and enforcing reasonable security requirements in
relation to their responsibilities under ERCOT rules;
(3) serve as the single point of contact for
the initiation of transmission services;
(4) maintain the reliability and security of
the ERCOT region's electrical network, including the instantaneous balancing of
ERCOT generation and load and monitoring the adequacy of resources to meet
demand;
(5) provide for
non-discriminatory access to the transmission system, consistent with this
chapter, commission orders, and ERCOT rules;
(6) accept and supervise the processing of
all requests for interconnection to the ERCOT transmission system from owners
of new generating facilities;
(7)
coordinate and schedule planned transmission facility outages;
(8) perform system screening security
studies, with the assistance of affected TSPs;
(9) plan the ERCOT transmission system, in
accordance with this section;
(10)
establish and administer procedures for the registration of market
participants;
(11) manage and
operate the customer registration system;
(12) administer the renewable energy program,
unless the commission designates a different person to administer the
program;
(13) monitor generation
planned outages;
(14) disseminate
information relating to market operations, market prices, and the availability
of services, in accordance with this chapter, commission orders, and the ERCOT
rules;
(15) operate an electronic
transmission information network; and
(16) perform any additional duties required
under this chapter, commission orders, and ERCOT rules.
(c) Liability. ERCOT shall not be liable in
damages for any act or event that is beyond its control and which could not be
reasonably anticipated and prevented through the use of reasonable measures,
including, but not limited to, an act of God, act of the public enemy, war,
insurrection, riot, fire, explosion, labor disturbance or strike, wildlife,
unavoidable accident, equipment or material shortage, breakdown or accident to
machinery or equipment, or good faith compliance with a then valid curtailment,
order, regulation or restriction imposed by governmental, military, or lawfully
established civilian authorities.
(d) Planning. ERCOT shall conduct
transmission system planning and exercise comprehensive authority over the
planning of bulk transmission projects that affect the transfer capability of
the ERCOT transmission system. ERCOT shall supervise and coordinate the other
planning activities of TSPs.
(1) ERCOT shall
evaluate and make a recommendation to the commission as to the need for any
transmission facility over which it has comprehensive transmission planning
authority.
(2) A TSP shall
coordinate its transmission planning efforts with those of other TSPs, insofar
as its transmission plans affect other TSPs.
(3) ERCOT shall submit to the commission any
revisions or additions to the planning guidelines and procedures prior to
adoption. ERCOT may seek input from the commission as to the content and
implementation of its guidelines and procedures as it deems
necessary.
(e)
Information and coordination. Transmission service providers and transmission
service customers shall provide such information as may be required by ERCOT to
carry out the functions prescribed by this chapter, commission orders, and
ERCOT rules. ERCOT shall maintain the confidentiality of competitively
sensitive information and other protected information, as specified in §
25.362 of this title. Providers of
transmission and ancillary services shall maintain the confidentiality of
competitively sensitive information entrusted to them by ERCOT or a
transmission service customer.
(f)
Interconnection standards. ERCOT may prescribe reliability and security
standards for the interconnection of generating facilities that use the ERCOT
transmission network. Such standards shall not adversely affect or impede
manufacturing or other internal process operations associated with such
generating facilities, except to the minimum extent necessary to assure
reliability of the ERCOT transmission network.
(g) ERCOT administrative fee. ERCOT shall
charge an administrative fee, and the fees it charges are subject to commission
approval, in accordance with this chapter.
(h) Reports. Each TSP and transmission
service customer in the ERCOT region shall on an annual basis provide to ERCOT
historical information concerning peak loads and resources connected to the
TSP's system.
(i) Anti-trust laws.
The existence of ERCOT is not intended to affect the application of any state
or federal anti-trust laws.
(j)
Decertification. ERCOT shall be subject to decertification as an independent
organization in accordance with §
25.364 of this title (relating to
Decertification of an Independent Organization).
(k) Pilot Projects.
(1) ERCOT may conduct pilot projects to
provide a temporary platform to evaluate resources, technologies, services, and
processes that demonstrate the potential to advance the operational and market
functions of the ERCOT system. The pilot projects will allow ERCOT to validate
performance claims of alternative technologies, evaluate the extent to which
new technologies or processes can provide services that comply with federal and
state reliability standards, and review how resources perform in various
operational and market scenarios. As part of a pilot project, ERCOT may grant
temporary exceptions from ERCOT rules, as necessary to effectuate the purposes
of the pilot project. ERCOT may use information gained from pilot projects to
inform the development of permanent changes to ERCOT rules.
(2) Process for Development and Approval of
Pilot Projects. ERCOT may conduct a pilot project upon approval of the scope
and purposes of the pilot project by the governing board of ERCOT. Proposals
for approval of pilot projects shall be made to the governing board only by
ERCOT staff, after consultation with affected market participants and
commission staff designated by the executive director. The ERCOT governing
board shall ensure that there is an opportunity for adequate stakeholder review
and comment on any proposed pilot project. Pilot project proposals approved by
the ERCOT governing board shall include:
(A)
The scope and purposes of the pilot project;
(B) Designation of temporary exceptions from
ERCOT rules that ERCOT expects to authorize as part of the pilot
project;
(C) Criteria and reporting
mechanisms to determine whether and when ERCOT should propose changes to ERCOT
rules based upon results of a pilot project;
(D) An estimate of costs ERCOT will incur
attributable to the pilot project; and
(E) An estimated date of completion for the
pilot project.
(3)
Participation in a pilot project shall not be required as a condition to the
deployment of any resource, technology, or process that complies with existing
ERCOT rules. The existence of a pilot project does not prohibit any market
participant from proposing changes to ERCOT rules that are not dependent on the
outcome of the pilot project.
(4) A
decision of the ERCOT governing board approving a pilot project pursuant to
this subsection constitutes "ERCOT conduct" for purposes of appeal to the
commission pursuant to §
22.251 of this title (relating to
Review of Electric Reliability Council of Texas (ERCOT) Conduct).
