Grid Operator has Set 38 Records this Summer — so Far

Records are meant to be broken, as the saying goes.

Just ask the folks at ERCOT, which has set 38 peak-demand records since May for all-time, monthly and weekend highs. The grid operator’s all-time peak has been broken 11 times, and it has exceeded the previous 74.8-GW record that dated back to 2019 on 33 days since June 12, as 100-degree Fahrenheit temperatures in Texas have become the norm.

ERCOT’s all-time record for average hourly demand now stands at 79.8 GW. The grid operator predicted in May that demand would peak at 77.3 GW during August. The Texas Interconnection has held up so far even as temperatures approach those set during the state’s record-breaking summer of 2011.

Interim ERCOT CEO Brad Jones said Wednesday in an interview with NBC News that his team is preparing for the possibility that this summer’s extreme heat could top 2011’s, the hottest on record.

“We are approaching a 2011 summer, and the grid is holding together, and I have high confidence that it will continue to do so throughout the summer,” Jones said last month.

Staff have continued to maintain their conservative operations posture, setting aside several thousand megawatts every day in operating reserves. ERCOT has issued eight operating condition notices, its lowest-level market communication. The most recent one expired last Thursday.

Staff have also deployed non-spinning reserves once this summer and asked for voluntary conservation measures three times. “We want to be respectful of Texans, so we will only call for conservation if we need it,” they said in an email to RTO Insider.

ERCOT’s weather forecast calls for increased rain chances and cloud cover this week as unsettled weather patterns take shape over the state. The forecast predicts highs of 100 or more are still likely over the next week, but “105+ degree highs will be much harder to come by.”

There’s still plenty of summer left, however, and with it, the chance for more records.

Greer Steps down from TAC

The Technical Advisory Committee has lost one of its more vocal and experienced members with last week’s announcement by Morgan Stanley’s Clayton Greer that he is leaving his firm to pursue an outside opportunity.

“For the amusement of some and the relief of many — and mainly because I have to — I will be stepping down from [TAC] after almost 20 years of faithful service,” Greer said in an email to the committee.

Greer praised those he sat alongside for nearly two decades (“You are some of the most professional individuals I’ve had the pleasure of working with.”) and hinted at the work that lies ahead for TAC and its relationships with ERCOT’s new Board of Directors and a revamped Public Utility Commission.

“The [stakeholder] process actually works to create a market that has, until recently, operated in an extraordinarily efficient manner to maintain reliability and save money for ratepayers,” he said. “I firmly believe it will get back there someday, but there will obviously be some bumps and bruises along the way. I have always been amazed at how we can be beating each other up over policy one minute and then enjoying lunch together the next.

“I’m confident that the wisdom and talent in TAC is more than up to facing the challenges coming quickly upon the market as crypto loads, storage, distributed load and generation resources, and renewable resources continue to be added to the grid at a rapid pace,” he continued. “My wish for all of you is that you have the chance to experience some of the stakeholder processes provided in the other markets. I think if you did, you would be amazed at how well our process here works for the benefit of all involved.”

“Clayton’s contributions to the ERCOT market and the stakeholder process have been invaluable over the years,” said TAC Chair Clif Lange, of South Texas Electric Cooperative. “His candor and depth of expertise are unmatched and will be greatly missed. When others were unable or unwilling to comment on controversial items, Clayton was never afraid to point out when the emperor had no clothes.”

Greer was an outspoken critic of emergency response service (ERS). He regularly voted against revision requests related to the market, which he and others see as a capacity market for a subset of market participants. During the July TAC meeting, he cast the lone opposing vote against a measure that raised ERCOT’s ERS budget to $75 million, saying, as he has before, that the grid operator was paying to dispatch a service participants had already deployed.

“I am most thankful that I was able to vote ‘no’ on an ERS [revision request] one last time,” he wrote in a postscript to his email. “That made my year.”

Peakers Return to Seasonal Ops

Garland Power & Light has notified ERCOT that it plans to suspend year-round operations at two gas-fired peaker units and return them to seasonal status.

According to the utility’s notification of suspension of operations (NSO) to the grid operator, the two Spencer Road Generating Station units will operate from March 1 to Nov. 30.

Spencer 4 has a maximum summer sustainable rating of 57 MW, and Spencer 5 has a 61-MW rating. The units date back to 1966 and 1973, respectively.

ERCOT is conducting a reliability analysis to determine whether the units are still needed for system operations.

The grid operator also recently approved Greenville Electric Utility System’s NSO to return a steam unit to seasonal operations. GEUS 1 will operate from June 1 until Sept. 30. (See “Steam Unit Goes Seasonal,” ERCOT Briefs: Week of July 4, 2022.)

The unit has a summer seasonal net max sustainable rating of 17.5 MW. It went into operation in 2010.