ERCOT stakeholders wasted little time in discussing and unanimously approving a revision request (NPRR1238) during a June 12 webinar that it had tabled in May. 

Technical Advisory Committee members spent more than two hours debating the measure during the May meeting. During the June 12 call, they spent a little more than 15 minutes considering additional comments and approving the NPRR. 

“My over-under was actually more in the 30-minute range, so this is really exceeding my expectations,” TAC Vice Chair Martha Henson said in facilitating the webinar. 

The revision request and its related change to the Nodal Operating Guide (NOGRR265) would register loads that can curtail under certain system conditions so they can be accounted for differently in load-shed tables. The NPRR was tabled until the Texas legislative session ended June 2 in case further revisions had to be made to the measure. 

The Texas Industrial Energy Consumers advocacy group filed comments June 5, noting that a utility does not have a “unilateral right” to require a customer to commit to being controllable to be interconnected. It said without making the curtailable load voluntary, the NPRR would need to be revised to define what qualifies as “curtailable.” 

“It can’t be mandatory,” said attorney John Russ Hubbard, representing TIEC. “It’s voluntary to register once you are part of a voluntary, early curtailable load. It is mandatory to comply with ERCOT instructions. We think this squares nicely with [state law], and it also squares with Senate Bill 6.” 

ERCOT staff and Golden Spread Electric Cooperative, the NPRR’s sponsor, also filed comments. They agreed with Hubbard, leading to the 29-0 approval of the measure.