Current through Reg. 50, No. 13; March 28, 2025
(a) Purpose. The
purpose of this section is to promote reliability through provisions that
provide ERCOT flexibility in the implementation and administration of
ERS.
(b) ERS procurement. ERCOT
must procure ERS, a special emergency response service to be deployed by ERCOT
to help prevent or alleviate an actual or anticipated Energy Emergency Alert
(EEA) event.
(1) ERCOT will determine the ERS
standard contract terms under which ERS resources are obligated to provide ERS,
including renewal of ERS contract periods ERCOT deems necessary due to the
depletion of available ERS.
(2)
ERCOT may spend a maximum of $75 million in a 12-month period on ERS, unless
otherwise determined by the commission. During that 12-month period, ERCOT may
exceed the $75 million maximum by up to an additional $25 million for ERS
contract renewals under subsection (d)(9) of this section during a period where
ERS has been exhausted. ERCOT may determine cost limits for each ERS standard
contract term in order to ensure that the ERS expenditure cap is not exceeded.
To minimize the cost of ERS, ERCOT may reject any offer that ERCOT determines
to be unreasonable or outside of the parameters of an acceptable offer. ERCOT
may also reject any offer placed on behalf of any ERS resource if ERCOT
determines that it lacks a sufficient basis to verify whether the ERS resource
complied with ERCOT-established performance standards in an ERS deployment
event during the preceding ERS standard contract term.
(c) Definitions.
(1) ERS contract period--A period defined by
ERCOT for which an ERS resource is obligated to provide ERS, consisting of all
or part of the hours in an ERS standard contract term.
(2) ERS resource--A resource contracted to
provide ERS that meets one of the following descriptions:
(A) A load or aggregation of loads;
or
(B) A dispatchable generator
that is not registered with ERCOT as a Generation Resource, or an aggregation
of such generators.
(3)
ERS standard contract term--Periods for which ERCOT may procure ERS.
(4) ERS time period--Set of hours designated
by ERCOT within an ERS standard contract term.
(d) Participation in ERS. In addition to
requirements established by ERCOT, the following requirements apply for the
provision of ERS:
(1) An ERS resource must be
represented by a qualified scheduling entity (QSE).
(2) Offers must be submitted to ERCOT through
a QSE.
(A) An offer may be submitted for one
or more ERS time periods within an ERS contract period.
(B) QSEs representing ERS resources may
aggregate multiple loads to reach the minimum capacity offer requirement
established by ERCOT. Such aggregations will be considered a single ERS
resource for purposes of submitting offers.
(3) ERCOT must establish qualifications for
QSEs and ERS resources to participate in ERS.
(4) A resource must not commit to provide ERS
if it is separately obligated to provide response with the same capacity during
any of the same hours.
(5) ERCOT
must establish performance criteria for QSEs and ERS resources.
(6) When dispatched by ERCOT, an ERS resource
must deploy consistent with its obligations and must remain deployed until
recalled by ERCOT.
(7) ERCOT may
deploy ERS as necessary, subject to the annual expenditure cap.
(8) Deployment of an ERS resource must be
limited to the number of hours for which the service was contracted, up to a
maximum of 24 cumulative hours in an ERS contract period. However, if an
instruction causes the cumulative total ERS deployment time to exceed the
number of hours contracted within an ERS contract period, each ERS resource
must remain deployed until permitted by ERCOT procedures or by ERCOT
instructions to return from deployment.
(9) Upon exhaustion of an ERS resource's
obligation in any ERS contract period, ERCOT may renew that obligation, subject
to the consent of the ERS resource and its QSE. ERCOT may renew the obligation
on each occasion that the resource's obligation is exhausted. ERCOT may limit
the renewal quantity to manage the overall cost of the service or for
reliability needs.
(10) ERCOT must
establish procedures for testing of ERS resources.
(11) A resource with a pre-existing
obligation to provide ERS may submit a proposal to serve as an alternative to a
resource subject to reliability must-run (RMR) service for the same period. If
the resource is selected, ERCOT must appropriately modify or terminate the
resource's pre-existing ERS obligation to allow the resource to participate as
an RMR alternative.
(e)
ERS payment and charges.
(1) ERCOT must make a
payment to each QSE representing an ERS resource on an as-bid basis, a market
clearing price mechanism, or such other mechanism as ERCOT deems appropriate,
subject to modifications determined by ERCOT based on the ERS resource's
availability during an ERS standard contract term and the ERS resource's
performance in any deployment event.
(2) ERCOT must charge each QSE a charge for
ERS based upon its load ratio share during the relevant ERS time period and ERS
standard contract term.
(3) ERCOT
must settle an ERS contract period within 80 days following the completion of
the ERS standard contract term.
(f) Compliance.
(1) A QSE representing an ERS resource is
subject to administrative penalties for noncompliance with this rule or any
related ERCOT Protocols, Operating Guides, or other ERCOT standards, by the QSE
or the ERS resource it represents.
(2) ERCOT must establish criteria for
reducing a QSE's payment, suspending a QSE from participation in ERS, or both,
for failure to meet its ERS obligations, and must also establish criteria for
subsequent reinstatement.
(3) ERCOT
must establish criteria under which an ERS resource will be suspended for
noncompliance with this rule or any related ERCOT Protocols, Operating Guides,
or other ERCOT standards, and must also establish criteria for subsequent
reinstatement.
(4) ERCOT must
notify the commission of all instances of noncompliance with this rule or any
related ERCOT Protocols, Operating Guides, or other ERCOT standards.
(5) ERCOT must maintain records relating to
any alleged noncompliance with this rule or any related ERCOT Protocols,
Operating Guides, or other ERCOT standards.
(g) Reporting. Prior to the start of an ERS
standard contract term, ERCOT must report publicly the number of megawatts (MW)
procured per ERS time-period, the number and type of ERS resources providing
the service, and the projected total cost of the service for that ERS standard
contract term. ERCOT must review the effectiveness and benefits of ERS and
report its findings to the commission annually by April 15 of each calendar
year. The report must contain, at a minimum, the number of MW procured in each
period, the total dollar amount spent, the number and duration of deployments,
and the circumstances that led to each deployment.
(h) Implementation. ERCOT must develop, in
consultation with commission staff, additional procedures, guides, technical
requirements, protocols, or other standards that are consistent with this
section and that ERCOT finds necessary to implement ERS, including, but not
limited to, developing a standard form ERS Agreement and specific performance
guidelines and grace periods for ERS resources.
(i) Self Provision. ERCOT must establish
procedures for self-provision of ERS by any QSE.