ERCOT Board Certifies Full Nodal Systems Ready for Go-Live

ERCOT's Board of Directors yesterday certified that all nodal systems meet the readiness criteria to proceed with the Dec. 1 nodal market go-live.

"This is a historic vote for the ERCOT region and the 22 million consumers it serves," said ERCOT President and CEO Trip Doggett. "The board's unanimous approval marks the final readiness certification needed to proceed with the cutover steps to launch the nodal market, giving Texas one of the most advanced markets in the world," Doggett added.

The board's resolution recognized that issues remain to be addressed but none of the issues were deemed "showstoppers" to prevent full nodal operations on Dec. 1.

Mike Cleary, senior vice president and chief operating officer, reported that the nodal team is currently working on the issues to be resolved by go-live, but said that with the current mitigation plans in place, he did not see anything that would result in having to move the go-live date.

"We recognize that issues remain to be addressed but none of the remaining issues are significant enough to prevent moving forward with the implementation activities," Cleary said.

Cleary said that another component to ensure that participants are ready for go-live is that ERCOT plans to start a "soft launch" of the market on Nov. 15 with non-binding operations of the day-ahead market, unit commitments, and economic dispatch.

"Rather than a helicopter take-off, we want a runway takeoff," Cleary said.

The system cut-over timeline for the Dec. 1 launch includes:

• Oct. 18-30 - Market-facing tests

- Day-ahead market with hourly- and day-ahead unit commitment

- Locational marginal prices and base points published every 5 minutes

• Oct. 27-28 - 24 hour load-frequency control test
• Nov. 13-15 - Congestion revenue rights auction for December - first binding CRR auction
• Nov. 15-29 - "Soft launch"

- Non-binding day-ahead market with hourly- and day-ahead unit commitment

- Locational marginal prices and base points published every 5 minutes

• Nov. 28-30 - Generation and frequency control cutover to nodal systems
• Nov. 30 - Day-ahead market executed for Dec. 1 - the first operating day to be binding with nodal settlement
• Dec. 1 - First operating day of nodal.