Texas Generator To Pay $5,000 Under Settlement With PUCT Staff

Senate Wind, LLC would pay $5,000 under a settlement with Staff of the Public Utility Commission of Texas to settle alleged violations of Electric Reliability Council of Texas (ERCOT) Protocols § 16.12.3, concerning market participant audits of user security administrators and digital certificates.

ERCOT Protocols § 16.12.3(1) states that "[d]uring September of each year, each Market Participant shall generate a list of its registered [User Security Administrator] and Certificate Holders. The Market Participant, through its User Security Administrator or another authorized third party, shall perform an audit by reviewing the list and noting any inconsistencies or instances of non-compliance (including, for example, any Certificate Holder that may have changed job functions and no longer requires the Digital Certificate)."

ERCOT Protocols § 16.12.3(2) states that each market participant is required to submit to ERCOT an attestation of compliance based on that audit (a Digital Certificate Audit Attestation or DCAA) by October 1 of each year. Attestations must be completed for each market participant type (e.g., counterparty, qualified scheduling entity, load serving entity, etc.).

Senate Wind is registered as a Resource Entity, Congestion Revenue Rights Account, and Counterparty

The settlement states that, as such, "Senate was required to file three DCAAs by October 1, 2015 and another three by October 1, 2016. Senate submitted its 2015 DCAAs for Resource Entity and Congestion Revenue Rights Account Holder, timely, on September 29, 2015."

"Senate submitted its 2015 DCAA for Counterparty on January 28, 2016, and as such, this filing was not timely made," the settlement states

Previously, on December 5, 2014, Commission Staff issued a warning letter to Senate regarding a failure to submit DCAAs for calendar year 2013, the settlement states

Docket 47277