Luminant to Pay $750,000 Under Settlement with Texas Staff

Luminant Energy Company, LLC would pay $750,000 under a settlement with Staff of the Public Utility Commission of Texas concerning the alleged failure of several Luminant units on February 2, 2011, to be on-line at an output level at least equal to each unit's low sustained limit (LSL) within 25 minutes of ERCOT's Non-Spinning Reserve Service (NSRS) dispatch instruction.

Specifically, a prior Staff NOV had alleged that the failures of five of the Morgan Creek CTs on February 2, 2011 to be on-line at an output level at least equal to each unit's LSL within 25 minutes of ERCOT's NSRS dispatch instruction were violations of ERCOT Protocol §§ 6.5.7.6.2.3(4) and 8.1.1.4.3(3)(b).

Staff had also alleged that on March 9, 2012, DeCordova CT1 failed to reach its LSL within 25 minutes and did not update its Resource Status Code within 25 minutes of the NSRS deployment.

Luminant had argued that each of these issues were the result of equipment failures beyond its reasonable control which excuse its obligation to perform in accordance with the ERCOT Protocols pursuant to P.U.C. SUBST. Rule 25.503(f)(2)(C).

Additionally, on March 26, 2012, Luminant received an NSRS dispatch instruction from ERCOT for Permian Basin CT1. Following the dispatch instruction from ERCOT, Permian Basin CT1 successfully reached its LSL within 25 minutes of deployment, but Staff alleged that Luminant did not timely change the real time resource status code to "ON", which made the full capacity unavailable for SCED to dispatch for more than 1 hour.

Docket 40368