ERCOT Electric Grid One of Most Reliable in North America

The ERCOT grid is one of the most reliable in North America, according to testimony by ERCOT board vice chair Bob Manning and ERCOT chief operating officer Sam Jones who appeared before a joint hearing of two state Senate committees on Friday, August 13.  Manning and Jones assured the two committees that ERCOT is prepared to anticipate a grid disturbance, to take steps to prevent a blackout, and to restore the grid to full operations should a blackout occur.  The hearing, held by the Committees on Business & Commerce and Infrastructure Development & Security, was timed to coincide with the first anniversary of the northeast blackout (August 14, 2003).

The state’s top two homeland security officials received a similar briefing on Monday, August 16, from Ken Donohoo and Paul Wattles.  ERCOT and the state’s Homeland Security Office (a division of the Governor’s office) will work together to build better two-way communication between ERCOT’s grid operations and the State Operations Center, which monitors, tracks and communicates information on homeland security threats.  Steven McCraw was announced as the successor to current Office of Homeland Security Director Jay Kimbrough on Aug. 2.  Kimbrough will continue as a senior adviser to the Governor on homeland security issues.

* For more information, contact Paul Wattles at x7242

Management Firm Hired to Provide Internal Security Services

ERCOT has hired Dyonyx, a Houston-based information technology and management consulting firm, to provide internal security services while ERCOT rebuilds itself in this area. The contract work plan includes an initial discovery phase to review the overall network architecture and applications systems architecture, examine security operations and policies, and review audit findings.  Phase II is implementing project management processes, responding to audit findings, resolving security issues, defining and developing needed projects, and initiating a recruitment process for a permanent ERCOT security staff.  The final phase will include execution of agreed-upon project work plans as needed.

The Dyonyx project manager serves on NERC’s Critical Infrastructure Protection Advisory Committee and on the Electric Power Research Institute Committee, and is familiar with the compliance provisions of NERC, SAS 70, ISO 17799 and other security standards.  Additionally, Dyonyx has experience working with other ISO’s and with electric utilities.

* For more information, contact Steve Grendel at x3150

Approved Protocols Ensure System Operators Receive More Reliable Information

ERCOT’s board approved PRR520, a set of measurements of QSE-submitted resource plans. Resource plans are submitted by QSE’s to ERCOT and provide important information about the generators that are planned to be in service during each hour of the day. Previously, there had been no standard measure for the quality of these plans.  Problems related to the plans have been a long-standing concern and were highlighted by a review of operations during the cold weather events in February 2003.  The new protocol assures that more accurate and consistent information reaches system operators and culminates over a year of development and testing of the proposed measures put together by ERCOT’s compliance group and the stakeholder QSE project managers working group.

* For more information, contact Mark Henry at x7021.

Executive Team Reviewing 2005 ERCOT Budget

The ERCOT executive team is in the process of reviewing the 2005 budget. ERCOT CEO Tom Schrader informed the finance and audit committee that he plans to be very involved in the budget review, and as a result, the budget will be delivered to the committee a few weeks later than shown on the original schedule. This will move planned board approval of the budget from October 19 to November 16. The goal is for the 2005 budget requirements to reflect the administrative fee at its current level of $0.44 per MWH. A public meeting is still scheduled for September 1 to discuss the schedule and processes for budgeting both operating expenses and capital expenditures, to review key assumptions, and to take input from interested parties. A second public meeting will be held on October 12.

* For more information, contact Mike Petterson at x7013

Legislative Hearings

The Texas House Regulated Industries Committee chaired by Representative Phil King, will hold a hearing in Weatherford, Texas on August 26. The hearing was originally scheduled to cover grid reliability, but now has a different subject: financial market valuation of electric utilities and telecommunications companies. Chairman King will likely schedule a hearing on ERCOT issues in the future. Mark Walker and Paul Wattles will attend this meeting for informational purposes.

The Sunset Advisory Commission’s “Decision Meeting” on the PUCT, originally scheduled for September 14-15, will not meet on both days. The meeting will only be held on September 15. The Commission will decide on the final recommendations it will make to the 2005 Legislature on the future of the PUCT and OPUC.  More details will follow on the agenda and on the representatives from ERCOT who will testify at this meeting.

*For more information, contact Paul Wattles at x7242

ERCOT Meeting Dates

• Monday, August 23 – TNT Protocols, ERCOT Austin 206A, 9:00am – 5:00pm
• Tuesday, August 24 – TNT Protocols, ERCOT Austin 206A, 8:30am – 5:00pm
• Wednesday, August 25 – TNT General Session, ERCOT Austin 206, 9:30am – 3:30pm
• Thursday, August 26 – PRS, ERCOT Austin 206A, 9:30am – 4:00pm
• Friday, August 27, PRS Annual Prioritization, 9:30am – 4:00pm

* For more information, contact Brittney Albracht at x7027

ERCOT at a Glance is an electronic summary of the timely and topical events going on within the organization. ERCOT at a Glance will update employees on the newsworthy and noteworthy events and accomplishments related to the business of ERCOT. We are seeking milestones, accomplishments and everyday news. If you’ve got important stories or information to share with us, please provide us with your news in electronic summary format, after first coordinating with the managers and directors in your area. We welcome your summaries (due by 5 p.m. on Thursday of each week) and look forward to hearing from you. If you have questions, please contact Heather Tindall at 512-225-7023 or htindall@ercot.com.