Texas Staff Updates Estimate of ERCOT Capacity Used for Small Fish Swim Free Rule

Staff of the Public Utility Commission of Texas have filed an updated estimate of installed generation capacity in ERCOT.

The amount of installed generation capacity is a factor in determining (1) the 20 percent limit on installed generation capacity established in PURA § 39.154 and (2) the 5 percent wholesale market power exemption established in P.U.C. Subst. R. 25.504(c).

For purposes of the 20% limit, the estimated total installed generation capacity is 87,857 MW (down from the 88,840 MW reported in the January 2018 Estimate of Installed Generation Capacity in ERCOT)

For purposes of the 5% exemption, the estimated total installed generation capacity is 80,423 MW (down from 81,765 MW).

Staff listed several reasons driving the changed values, including:

1. The Big Brown generation units have officially retired, and therefore, are no longer included in the installed generation capacity.

2. Information from the May 2018 ERCOT CDR has been added to the spreadsheet. This includes the addition of several new generation facilities.

3. Updated information on the annual wholesale energy sales by switchable generation units to ERCOT is available from the most recently filed Generating Capacity Reports under PUC Docket 23730. 16 TAC § 25.401(e)(1)(D) states that the installed generation capacity value will include, "generating facilities that are located on the boundary between two power regions and are able to deliver electricity directly into either power region, except that the capacity of such facility shall be allocated between the power regions based on the share of its total electric energy that the facility sold in each power region during the preceding year." The capacity reduction will be based on the percentage of energy that is sold into the non-ERCOT power regions.

Project 39870