ERCOT Reports Significant Improvement in Reserve Margins, In Latest CDR Report

ERCOT's new Capacity, Demand, and Reserves report shows significant improvement in the forecast reserve margin.

The forecast reserve margins under the new CDR, versus the most recent prior CDR from May 2013, are below:

      May 2013 CDR    Feb 2014 CDR
2014:     13.8%          13.0% ** (16% by 8/1/14)
2015:     11.6%          15.4%
2016:     10.4%          14.1%
2017:     10.5%          12.8%
2018:      9.4%          13.4%
2019:      7.4%          10.9%
2020:      6.5%           9.5%
2021:      6.0%           8.5%
2022:      5.2%           7.1%
2023:      4.5%           5.8%

Regarding the summer 2014 reserve margin, ERCOT said, "That margin is expected to increase to 16 percent by Aug. 1 after several new units, totaling more than 2,100 megawatts (MW) of capacity, begin commercial operations."

Link to new ERCOT CDR report