ERCOT Files Review Of Summer 2018 With Texas PUC

ERCOT has filed with the Public Utility Commission of Texas ERCOT's Review of the Summer of 2018 (June - August) presentation that includes key observations for the summer 2018 and links to summer analysis data sources

Key observations from the report include

• Resource performance was exceptional with overall low outage numbers. MWs of resource outages during peak demand in 2018 were especially low. During peak demand periods, the resource outage capacity was observed to be significantly lower than in summer 2017.

• Sufficient operating reserves were maintained. ERCOT did not initiate an Energy Emergency Alert (EEA) and did not issue any appeals for conservation.

• The market responded during peak conditions, with the majority of generation resource capacity self-committed

• There was limited remaining generation resource capacity to respond to any significant additional resource unavailability during peak conditions without the use of emergency reserves.

• However, ERCOT said that, "There was likely additional available response from demand-side and Distributed Energy Resources." Increased visibility in such distributed resources would allow ERCOT to better understand this potential response.

More specifically, ERCOT said that, "Based on the limited information currently available, ERCOT estimated that some Distributed Energy Resources (DERs) are responding to price."

ERCOT is currently tracking ~100 mapped, registered DERs located at 93 unique transmission-level loads. ERCOT does not receive telemetry from these DERs. In the report, ERCOT provided an estimated distributed energy resource response for July 19. DER response was estimated based on changes in transmission-level load consumption. This may include 4-Coincident Peak (4-CP) response during this Operating Day. ERCOT noted that the information needed to evaluate 4-CP response during 2018 is not yet available

ERCOT also noted that high electricity prices in the forward markets led to an increase in collateral requirements for market participants.

A fundamental change in ERCOT's credit exposure calculations occurred in February 2018, where the Real-Time and Day-Ahead components (RFAF and DFAF) of TPE are now adjusted based on forward prices at ERCOT North Hub on a rolling 21-day horizon.

While the increase was largely anticipated by market participants, it still prompted a larger-than-usual number of collateral calls. The majority of collateral calls were met in a timely manner, ERCOT said

ERCOT's report (available here) includes a closer look at conditions on specific peak days