Texas Generator To Pay $35,000 Under Settlement With PUCT Staff

NRG Texas Power LLC would pay $35,000 under a settlement with Staff of the Public Utility Commission of Texas to resolve alleged violations of Section 39.151 of PURA and 16 Tex. Admin. Code § 25.503, related to compliance with ERCOT procedures, due to the alleged failure to install a Power System Stabilizer (PSS) under the timelines required.

Pursuant to ERCOT Operating Guide § 2.2.6(5), "if an excitation system on a synchronous Generation Resource greater than 10 MW is modified or replaced after January 1, 2008, the Generation Resource shall install a PSS, establish PSS settings to dampen modes with oscillations within the range of 0.2 Hz to 2 Hz, and place the PSS in-service."

According to the settlement, in 2010-11, for six generation resources (GRs), NRG Texas installed PSSs concurrent with Automatic Voltage Regulator (AVR) replacements for each of the six GRs as required by Operating Guide § 2.2.6(5). However, four of the six GRs did not timely place these installed PSSs in-service, with the PSSs placed in-service some 30 months after installation

The six at-issue NRG resources are THW_THWGT51 (GR 51), THW_THWGT52 (GR 52), THW_THWGT53 (GR 53), THW_THWGT54 (GR 54), THW_THWGT55 (GR 55), and THW_THWGT56 (GR 56).

Additionally, the settlement states that NRG Texas's QSE did not provide the PSS status for the six GRs to ERCOT until July 1, 2015

Docket 46079