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PRESS RELEASE
February 21, 2008
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TOPICS:
The nodal market implementation remains on schedule for the December 2008 launch, and some key checkpoints are approaching, Jerry Sullivan, executive director of the market redesign, told the ERCOT Board of Directors Tuesday.
Major “health checks” over the next six to seven months will cover the Common Information Model (March-April), integration (April-May), performance (May-June), and defects (June-July). Sullivan said he expected to have “good visibility” in late May regarding performance of the systems.
Nearly all systems and their integration will be independently checked and tested prior to the final qualification test – the 168-hour test – in September. It will be conducted by the intended users of the systems, and all market participants will be required to participate.
The board also heard a report on nodal from IBM Global Business Services, their fifth report since being asked by the board to perform an external review of the program. The report on the project management control system stated that controls in place are generally functioning as expected, but noted that certain control activities should be enhanced.
For more information about the nodal program and nodal training courses, see the Nodal Market Implementation Web site: http://nodal.ercot.com/index.html
In other board action, the directors approved the following Protocol Revision Request (PRR) and Nodal Protocol Revision Request (NPRR):
ERCOT staff reports included:
Board meeting documents are posted on www.ercot.com with the February 19 meeting agenda.
Interconnection agreements for two gas plants totaling 783 megawatts (MW) have been completed, and three wind farms totaling 436 megawatts began commercial operations last month, according to the January System Planning Report.
New signed interconnection agreements posted last month include:
The addition of the gas plants is expected to increase the 2009 reserves by 1.2 percent, raising the reserve margin from 12.1 percent to 13.3 percent.
The wind farms which started operations last month were:
The system planning division is currently tracking 222 active generation interconnection requests totaling over 100,000 MW, including 43,930 MW of wind generation. Nuclear projects in the interconnection queue total 15,586 MW; natural gas is at 32,288 MW, and coal is at 8,305 MW.
The regional planning group is reviewing proposed transmission improvements estimated at $185.05 million.
The full report is posted with the meeting documents for the February Reliability and Operations Subcommittee Feb. 15 meeting.
Director of System Planning Dan Woodfin presented an overview of the wind impact/ancillary services study at the joint Regional Planning Group/Competitive Renewable Energy Zones (CREZ) Task Force meeting, Feb. 15.
With input from ERCOT staff and stakeholders, General Electric (GE) analyzed the need for additional or modified ancillary services to meet reliability requirements for increasing levels of wind penetration. Phase I findings of the GE wind impact/ancillary services study were presented Oct. 22. 2007. Phase II draft results were presented at the Reliability Operations Subcommittee Wind Impact Study Task Force on Feb. 1. GE will be presenting its final results to stakeholders at a meeting open to all stakeholders on February 27, and the final report on the study is due to ERCOT in late March.
Woodfin also presented an overview of the process being used for ERCOT’s CREZ transmission optimization study at the Feb. 15 meeting. Texas Senate Bill 20 directed the PUC, after consultation with ERCOT and Southwest Power Pool, to designate CREZs in areas with sufficient renewable resource potential and financial commitment by developers and to designate a plan for transmission to the areas. ERCOT is currently developing a recommended transmission plan for each of the four scenarios of wind development specified by the PUC in the interim order on this topic. ERCOT staff also presented several of the conceptual transmission plans that are under development.
The results of the CREZ transmission optimization study are expected to be filed with the PUC on April 2.
ERCOT will increase the bid cap for balancing energy and ancillary services from $1,500 to $2,250, effective March 1, in accordance with the Public Utility Commission’s Substantive Order 25.505(g), for scarcity pricing mechanisms in the energy-only market design that applies to the ERCOT region.
Scarcity pricing mechanisms are intended to encourage market participants to build and maintain a mix of resources that sustain adequate supply of electric service in the ERCOT region, according to the PUC rule, and to encourage market participants to take advantage of practices such as hedging, long-term contracting between market participants that supply power and market participants that serve load, and price responsiveness by end-use customers.
In addition, the wholesale market stakeholder committee approved a system change to increase the Commercially Significant Constraint (CSC) Shadow Price Cap from $2,500 to $5,600 to reflect the change in the system-wide offer cap. With this change in the CSC Shadow Price Cap, it will be possible for the market clearing price for energy (MCPE) to go below -$1,000. In testing some historical cases, ERCOT observed the MCPE decrease to as low as -$2,010.
CEO Bob Kahn presented testimony at a public hearing of the Texas House Select Committee on Electric Generation Capacity and Environmental Effects, Feb. 6. Kahn’s presentation is available on the ERCOT Web site in News/Reports & Presentations.
Texas Nodal News is a free subscription-based newsletter featuring nodal project news, announcements, activities and upcoming training courses. The newsletter is published biweekly on Fridays. Highlights from the Feb. 15 Texas Nodal News include:
To receive the biweekly nodal newsletter, go to ERCOT E-Mail List Manager and select “texasnodalnews.” To receive nodal market notices, select “nodalmarketreadiness.”
| Contact | |
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| Dottie Roark | 512-225-7024 |