ERCOT Enters RMR Agreements with NRG, Garland Mothballed Units

The Electric Reliability Council of Texas has signed Reliability Must Run (RMR) Agreements with two Resource Entities to return Mothballed Generation Resources to service as soon as practicable to mitigate capacity shortages during the extreme heat and drought conditions impacting the ERCOT Region.

Specifically, NRG Energy and Garland Power and Light will return two natural gas units each, for a total of approximately 400 MW, to be available if needed through October 2011 to reduce the risk of rotating outages across the ERCOT region.

Garland Power & Light has agreed to bring back Spencer Units 4 and 5 with approximately 122 MW of total capacity. NRG Texas Power LLC has agreed to bring back SR Bertron Units 1 and 2 with approximately 292 MW of total capacity.

To minimize the impact of this temporary reliability tool on other market participants in the competitive market, the four units will be called on only when necessary to avoid emergencies so the units will not displace units that are on-line and bidding into the market, ERCOT said.

In conditions where ERCOT indicates a capacity shortage with no available market Resources, then these RMR Resources will be committed under Reliability Unit Commitment (RUC) to ensure system reliability.