Texas Commissioner Anderson: 300 MW Of Price Responsive Load "Vaporizes" As ERCOT Prices Increase

During Friday's open meeting, Texas Public Utility Commissioner Kenneth Anderson noted that during the recent heat in Texas, the ERCOT market has seen a significant and repeated reduction of load once certain prices are hit (non-emergency curtailments).

"When prices reach a certain level, there's suddenly 300 MW, at a certain price, which I won't discuss, that load vaporizes, it disappears," Anderson said.

Anderson said that it was not clear if the reductions stem from LSEs deploying their own demand response programs or merchant optimization of customers' distributed generation, or a combination of both.

Anderson made the comments during discussion of a rulemaking concerning distributed generation (42532).

Commissioners agreed to open a second project addressing discrete distributed generation issues not addressed in Project 42532, specifically such as whether the current 10 MW cap used to define distributed generation should be increased or eliminated from the rules governing distributed generation, and whether the term "on-site" should continue to be in the rule. The new rulemaking was expressly limited to such discrete issues, as Chairman Donna Nelson wished to avoid a "kitchen sink" proceeding.