ERCOT Defers Final Determination On RMR Need for Calpine Clear Lake Units To Potentially Reflect New Study Process

ERCOT said in a market notice that it is deferring its final determination on the need for certain of Calpine's Clear Lake units until the ERCOT Board’s consideration of NPRR788, which would modify the studies used for ERCOT's evaluation of RMR determinations

On August 11, 2016, ERCOT received a Notification of Suspension of Operations (NSO) for the following Generation Resources: Calpine Corp (RE) – CTL_GT_102, CTL_GT_103, CTL_GT_104, CTL_ST_101, CTL_ST_102 (Clear Lake units)

The NSO indicates that the Resource will be decommissioned and retired February 1, 2017.

As previously reported, on September 1, 2016, ERCOT issued a market notice with its initial determination indicating that these generation resources are needed to support ERCOT transmission system reliability. ERCOT further indicated that it would issue its final determination on or before October 10, 2016.

However, ERCOT stated that, for several months, stakeholders have been discussing Nodal Protocol Revision Request (NPRR) 788, RMR Study Modifications. This NPRR modifies the requirement for Reliability Must-Run (RMR) studies to use processes consistent with ERCOT planning studies. In addition, the NPRR introduces a new requirement that a potential RMR Unit must have a meaningful impact on the expected transmission overload to be considered for an RMR Agreement. Thus, the NPRR materially changes the way in which ERCOT conducts RMR studies and therefore may impact its final determination decision.

ERCOT noted that NPRR788 was approved by the Technical Advisory Committee (TAC) at its September 29, 2016 meeting. TAC has issued its Report and Impact Analysis on NPRR788 to the ERCOT Board of Directors (ERCOT Board) for consideration at its October 11, 2016 meeting.

"In light of the above information, ERCOT is deferring its final determination on the need for these Generation Resources until the ERCOT Board’s consideration of NPRR788. ERCOT will issue a Market Notice with a final determination for these Generation Resources on Wednesday, October 12, 2016," ERCOT said