Texas Staff Proposes Questions for Demand Response Integration Proceeding

Staff of the Public Utility Commission of Texas have recommended that the Commission hold a workshop on exploring the potential impact of demand response (DR) in ERCOT and further integration of this resource into the market. Staff also proposed a list of potential questions for public comment.

Among Staff's proposed questions are:

• What additional products and programs could ERCOT develop to facilitate DR? How should the programs be designed?

• Should economic incentives could be developed to stimulate large DR programs and if so, should the incentives be market based or load-ratio share based obligations?

• What regulations are needed to ensure residential and small commercial customers are adequately protected when participating in aggregated DR programs?

• How can advanced metering systems (AMS) and related technology support DR in residential and small commercial customer classes?

• How are existing ERCOT, LSE, and utility DR programs forecasted in forward demand and resource adequacy projections? How could DR programs be better reflected?

• How do price-based DR incentives offered by LSEs contribute to load forecasting errors? What other pricing and rate structures impact the wholesale market?

• What mechanisms could ensure that DR deployments appropriately contribute to price formation rather than price reversal?

• Do the Real-Time Market Enhancement and/or Hour-Ahead Market proposals submitted by the Market Enhancement Task Force (METF) to the Technical Advisory Committee (TAC) offer an appropriate framework for the participation of DR in the ERCOT market?

• Is load participation in the real-time market feasible when compared to voluntary price response? How does voluntary price response help set pricing or skew scarcity pricing signals?

• Would Loads in SCED attract significant DR participation beyond those resources already providing ancillary services?

Project 41061