Texas QSE To Pay $16,000 Under Settlement With PUC Staff

Voltus, Inc. would pay $16,000 under a settlement with Staff of the Public Utility Commission of Texas to resolve Voltus's alleged failure to adhere to Electric Reliability Council of Texas (ERCOT) Protocols § 8.1.3.3.3, related to Emergency Response Service Performance (ERS) and Testing

Voltus was contracted to provide ERS-30 during the October 2018 to January 2019 contract period for the following time periods: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, and 6.

Under ERCOT Protocols § 8.1.3.3.3, if a QSE submits an offer during the ERS contract period and ERCOT accepts that offer, the QSE must be ready to dispatch. If dispatched by ERCOT, the ERS resource must deploy consistent with its obligations and must remain deployed until recalled by ERCOT. If ERCOT does not dispatch the resource, ERCOT will calculate a portfolio-level ERS Availability Factor (ERSAF). If the ERSAF meets or exceeds 0.95, the QSE will be deemed to have met its ERS performance requirements for their ERS contract period. If a QSE does not achieve a 0.95 ERSAF, the QSE is subject to suspension from participating in ERS as well as Commission-ordered administrative penalties.

The settlement states, "Voltus's portfolio-level ERSAF in the October 2018 to January 2019 contract period for ERS-30 was 0.8533."

The settlement states, "Voltus failed to achieve the required ERSAF of 0.95 because it failed to maintain the required amount of load available for ERS deployment during the time periods: 2, 3, 4, and 5 for the October 2018 to January 2019 contract period for ERS-30. This failure was due to the underperformance of two specific resources enrolled in the contract period: COKE and GRIDPOINT."

The settlement states, "The COKE resource failed in time periods 2 to 5. The GRIDPOINT resource failed in all time periods and in the aggregate."

The settlement states, "To prevent future similar ERS violations, Voltus has enrolled COKE and GRIDPOINT in subsequent contract periods with different baselines from those utilized in the October 2018 to January 2019 contract period. Voltus has also reduced the offered capacity for GRIDPOINT from 1.25 MW to 0.2 MW to support its ability to adhere to availability requirements."

Docket 50228