Texas QSE To Pay $170,000 Under Settlement With Texas PUC Staff

Luminant Energy Company LLC would pay $170,000 under a settlement with Staff of the Public Utility Commission of Texas to resolve alleged violations of ERCOT Protocol § 8.1.1.4.2(1)(a).

According to the settlement, Luminant is the QSE for the Resource Entity (RE) Luminant Generation Company LLC

ERCOT Protocol § 8.1.1.4.2(1)(a) states that "[w]ithin one minute following a deployment instruction, the QSE must update the telemetered Ancillary Service Schedule for RRS for Generation Resources and Load Resources to reflect the deployment amount. The difference between the sum of the QSE's Resource RRS schedules and the sum of the QSE's Resource RRS responsibilities must be equal to the QSE's total RRS deployment instruction, excluding the deployment to Load Resources which are not Controllable Load Resources."

According to the settlement, QSEs are required to update their Ancillary Service schedules within one minute after ERCOT issues an RRS deployment instruction so that RRS energy can be timely dispatched by ERCOT's computer system (Security Constrained Economic Dispatch, or SCED). If the Ancillary Service Schedules are not timely updated, then the RRS capacity that has been reserved for a frequency event is not available for dispatch by SCED even though it may be reserved.

According to the settlement, a review of ERCOT's Responsive Reserve Performance Report for Generators & CLRs for the months of May, June, and July of 2015, "indicated that there were eleven instances where Luminant had not updated its Ancillary Service Schedules in response to RRS deployments in accordance with ERCOT Protocols § 8.1.1.4.2(1)(a)."

According to the settlement, Luminant implemented a new Generation Control System (GCS) in April 2015 and the new GCS did not update its ancillary service schedules due to a software glitch. According to the settlement, "[u]pon a follow-up notification by ERCOT regarding its repeated failures to update its ancillary service schedules during the months of May, June, and July of 2015, Luminant implemented a workaround solution to the software glitch."

Texas PUC Staff alleged that Luminant violated ERCOT Protocols§ 8.1.1.4.2(1)(a) on eleven separate occasions during the months of May, June, and July of 2015

The settlement agreement states that the agreement, "represents a compromise of claims and allegations, and the execution of this Agreement does not admit the truth or accuracy of any such disputed claims except as set forth in the Agreement."

Docket 46724