All but one ERCOT system generating resources have submitted their winter readiness reports, part of the state’s new requirements, the grid operator’s staff said Friday in a filing with the Public Utility Commission.
ERCOT said it had received 828 of 847, or 97.8%, of the total readiness reports that were required to be submitted by a Dec. 1 deadline. Another 18 reports were received by close of business Thursday, leaving only Rippey Solar, an 81-MW facility in North Texas, unaccounted for.
Rippey Solar is owned by BT Cooke Solar, one of eight generation companies recently fined for failing to provide winter readiness reports by the Dec. 1 deadline. (See “PUC Docks 8 Generators,” Texas PUC Chair Lake: ‘The Lights Will Stay On’.)
ERCOT staff noted 244 resources asserted good cause of non-compliance as of Thursday but said that after reviewing about 70% of the exception requests, “ERCOT does not believe [the assertions] should be taken as an indication that 244 generating units are wholly unprepared for the winter peak period.”
Staff said the attestations include about 25 separate winterization elements, such as enclosing sensors. “Many good-cause assertions identify a failure to comply with only a small number of these elements, but otherwise suggest compliance with the rule.”
Many of the good-cause assertions reviewed by ERCOT “reasonably asserted” that some requirements do not apply to the resource while others proposed a quick timetable to reach compliance.
“For these reasons, ERCOT would caution against an inference that a significant number of generators should be considered unprepared for winter based solely on the number of good-cause assertions,” staff said.
Austin Energy, which filed exception requests for all 13 of its generating resources, told RTO Insider it is making additional improvements based on its experience during February’s winter storm, and it expects the majority of its measures to be completed by the end of the year.
“That work is ongoing because either a unit at the plant site is undergoing planned maintenance that precludes completion of the step until the maintenance outage concludes and/or a contractor scheduled to perform winterization work could not complete the work until after Dec. 1,” a spokesperson said.
The utility noted it was able to maintain operations during February’s cold snap because of its prior weatherization efforts.
“The reports and the requests for exception are having the desired effect of increasing accountability and giving regulators more visibility into weatherization efforts,” the PUC said in a statement.
The commission and ERCOT must both sign off on the exception requests.
The new rules are a result of legislation following the February winter storm, when about half of ERCOT’s thermal generation fleet was rendered unavailable by the freezing temperatures.
Generation owners must implement winter-weather readiness recommendations from a post-event analysis of a 2011 winter weather event and fix any “known, acute issues” from last winter (51840). The generation owners’ highest-ranking executives were required to file notarized attestations that the resource has met its required actions by Dec. 1. (See “Weatherization Rule Published,” PUC Workshop Takes First Stab at Market Changes.)
Dispatchable generators submitted 520 of 530 reports (98%) on time, while 308 of 317 (97%) intermittent resources met the Dec. 1 deadline.
