Texas QSE Would Pay $35,000 Under Settlement with Texas PUC Staff

Staff of the Public Utility Commission of Texas and Luminant Energy Company LLC, a qualified scheduling entity, have entered into a Settlement Agreement under which Luminant would pay an administrative penalty of $35,000 to resolve an investigation to alleged violations concerning failure to adhere to ERCOT Protocol § 4.3(2) and § 8(B)(2) of the Black Start Agreement with ERCOT, relating to reporting requirements.

On April 12, 2011, Luminant self-reported a violation of ERCOT Protocol § 4.3(2) and § 8(B)(2) of the Black Start Agreement with ERCOT. Specifically, Luminant reported that each day during the period from February 1-8, 2011, it failed to submit the availability for two Black Start units, Stryker Creek Unit 1 (STRI) and Trinidad 6 (TND6), to ERCOT by 0600 for the day-ahead market and within 60 minutes as required by the Black Start Agreement. Additionally, one of the units not reported (TND6) was inoperable on February 3, 2011, and Luminant did not submit the required revised Black Start Availability Plan to ERCOT.

On September 23, 2011, Luminant self-reported a failure to submit a revised Black Start Availability Plan 60 minutes following a forced outage that occurred on August 28, 2011, when STRI was forced offline at approximately 3 p.m. Luminant notified ERCOT by phone of the forced outage and submitted an updated Current Operating Plan; however, Luminant did not submit a revised Black Start Availability Plan within 60 minutes as required in the ERCOT Protocols

Luminant self-reported each violation in a timely manner and developed extensive mitigation measures to continually improve its Black Start reporting training and procedures, the settlement states.

Docket 41452