Executive Summary
Today’s Wholesale Market Subcommittee spent a lot of time going through the list of remaining emergency action items from the fallout of the February storm, and decided that it could close (had dealt with or was dealing with) every one. They also remanded a few issues to the wholesale market working group (pricing issues of voltage reduction, future weatherization inspection fee structure, pricing impacts of the 2022 AS methodology, NPRR1100-battery switching while islanded, and NPRR1108 – ERCOT can reject any generator outage request).
NPRR1084 (generators have to report certain derates via the outage system) remains tabled as market participants and ERCOT continue to hash out a compromise.
NPRR1092(RUC offer floor lowering) got even messier as the Independent Market Monitor added (via recent comments) the BIG IDEA of removing the RUC Opt Out option to the original NPRR. It remains tabled.
NPRR1099 (ERCOT can move resource node locations in certain instances of point of interconnections being moved) had enough behind the scenes discussion that it passed with no discussion.
AGENDA
Notes
Voltage reduction issues – with NPRR1105 (ERCOT can implement voltage reduction prior to Energy Emergency Alert) recommended by the Technical Advisory Board and assured of passage, the Technical Advisory Board has remanded the issues of pricing impact and how much load reduction is expected, and when exactly will this be implemented to the Wholesale Market Subcommittee, which in turn has remanded it to the Wholesale Market Working Group.
The Wholesale Market Subcommittee has remanded the discussion of future weatherization inspection fee structure to the Wholesale Market Working Group (NPRR1107 was just for this round of inspections, needs to be updated for next round)
The Wholesale Market Subcommittee remanded discussion of pricing impacts of the 2022 Ancillary Service Methodology, particularly the procurement of up to 1000MW of extra NonSpin to the Wholesale Market Working Group.
The Wholesale Market Subcommittee went through all of the outstanding 2021 February Event Emergency Issues list items assigned to it that were still outstanding and determined that they were all able to be closed as they had been dealt with, or were being discussed at the appropriate working group.
ERCOT will come in and give an update on how it has changed its emergency communications methods in a future meeting
NPRR1100 (Enable a battery to switch to provide power to a nearby load when disconnected from the grid) was sent to the metering working group and the Wholesale Market Working Group for further discussion.
NPRR1108 (ERCOT will post daily limit of allowable outage MWs per day on a three year ahead basis and reject outages that get them over that amount) had a lot of discussion. THere was concern that this will provide incentive for resources to hoard outage days (request earlier and for longer than needed), but it may be needed so that ERCOT can comply with the requirements in Senate Bill 3 that they actively approve or reject all resource outages (rather than the status quo of approving everything that is submitted at least 45 days ahead of time). This NPRR was sent to the Wholesale Market Working Group for further discussion.
NPRR1084 (report certain derates via the outage scheduler) remains tabled at the Wholesale Market Working Group as market participants and ERCOT continue to discuss their differences.
NPRR1092 (lower offer floor for Reliability Unit Committed -RUC- resources) The IMM has posted comments adding the removal of the RUC opt out option to this NPRR, which is a bold strategy. One person tried to get this voted, but that motion died for lack of a second, so it will be discussed at the next Wholesale Market Subcommittee meeting (and perhaps earlier at the next wholesale market working group meeting as well)
NPRR1099 (allowing ERCOT to move resource nodes under certain limited cases of point of interconnection moves) got unanimously approved! There had been a lot of consternation about the possible implications of these movements to the CRR market, but ERCOT adjusted and limited the language enough that everyone was happy!
