Retail Provider Partners With Texas Coalition for Affordable Power To Offer Demand Response Programs

The Texas Coalition for Affordable Power has partnered with Gexa Energy to design and implement several demand response programs for TCAP aggregation members.

Among the programs are:

• Economic Demand Response Program

• Four Coincidence Peak (4CP) Program

• Emergency Response Service (ERS) Program

Several of the programs had been piloted in 2014

Under the economic demand response program, Gexa will declare a curtailment event when real-time market prices are expected to be greater than $500 MWh for at least one hour. Curtailment is voluntary, and there is no penalty for not curtailing load.

Under the economic demand response program, the customer will receive a payment which will be a function of the reduction in energy usage and the spread between real-time market prices and the current contract price. The reduction will be quantified by comparing the participant's interval usage during the EDR event to the usage in the same intervals for the three non-weekend or non-holiday days preceding the Event. The customer's retained share of the savings range from 50%-65%, according to TCAP collateral materials regarding the program.

Accounts eligible for the economic demand response program must have interval metering data available. Of these eligible customers, it is likely that the program would be offered to participant accounts with peak loads in excess of 100kW, TCAP said in collateral materials regarding the program.

The 4CP program is aimed at enabling participating customers to reduce TDSP charges by curtailing load during each of ERCOT's four 15-minute coincident peak events that occur during the summer months of June, July, August and September. Gexa, in conjunction with a third-party provider, will provide notifications to participants highlighting the probability that a given day will set the peak for the month

Under the Emergency Response Service program, customers bid their load into the ERCOT Emergency Response Service program.