ERCOT says it plans to use a third workshop to inform the discussion with stakeholders on the Dispatchable Reliability Reserve Service, which faces a June deadline to be brought before the Board of Directors.

The DRRS product, now in its third iteration since being mandated by Texas law in 2023, requires resources providing the service to be capable of running for at least four hours at their high sustained limit (HSL); to be online and dispatchable not more than two hours after being deployed; have the flexibility to address inter-hour operational challenges; and reduce the amount of reliability unit commitment by the amount of DRRS procured.

Keith Collins, ERCOT’s vice president of commercial operations, told the Technical Advisory Committee on Feb. 25 that staff’s position is to get more information on the product’s four-hour capability at HSL during the DRRS’ upcoming March 9 workshop. HSL is the maximum, non-curtailed, five-minute sustained energy output capacity a generator can produce, updated in real time by qualified scheduling entities.

“It’s come up a few times in the workshops related to how to consider the four-hour capability at HSL and how to consider that element,” Collins said.

ERCOT has filed two protocol changes and two related changes to the Nodal Operating Guide to make DRRS a reality. The first (NPRR1309) would meet all statutory criteria while also allowing online resources to participate. It would enable the product to be awarded in real time and would co-optimize its procurement with that of energy and other ancillary services under the new Real-Time Co-optimization market tool.

NPRR1309 has been granted urgent status and is due before the board for its June meeting.

The second protocol change (NPRR1310) has not been accorded urgent status. It would add energy storage resources as DRRS participants and a release factor so the product can support resource adequacy.

NPRR1310 “can be addressed as part of the market design elements of the reliability assessment later this year,” Collins said, referring to the biennial Grid Reliability and Resiliency Assessment, which is required by state law.

Texas House Bill 1500 required ERCOT to develop DRRS as an ancillary service and establish minimum requirements for the product. It is the third iteration of the product. (See RTC Deployed, ERCOT Takes on New Challenges in 2026.)

TAC members also discussed a Feb. 23 ERCOT market notice that directed transmission service providers within West Texas counties to include a no-solar scenario as part of their large load interconnection studies. ERCOT has identified an emerging reliability risk of local load shed in the region during low-wind conditions at night, especially during transmission and thermal resource outages.

ADER Pilot Expands

ERCOT staff updated TAC members on the Aggregate Distributed Energy Resource (ADER) pilot project, saying seven resources are fully participating in the program, providing 193 MW of energy and ancillary services as of February.

Staff have also accepted six additional ADERs that are in various stages of registration and qualification but cannot yet participate.

“The good news story is that the ADER pilot is growing, and it’s been growing significantly, particularly toward the second half of last year into this year,” said Ryan King, manager of market design. Existing QSEs expanding under a developed business model that meets telemetry requirements account for much of the growth, he said.

The seven ADERs offer 107.7 MW capability for energy, 35.4 MW capability for non-spinning reserve service and 49.9 MW capability for ERCOT Contingency Reserve Service. The total ADER qualified and potential capacities are 121.4 MW, 35.4 MW and 49.9 MW, respectively.

King said concerns remain within ERCOT that the pilot is moving too far and too fast on ancillary service limits. Those limits are necessary to manage system impacts and the ability of staff and resources to be able to support the pilot, he said.

The program’s governing documents allow ERCOT to increase limits as needed. It plans to increase the registered capacity limit from 200 MW to 500 MW and the QSE limit from 20 to 90%. The AS service limits will remain the same.

King promised further updates in the second quarter on plans to move the pilot into the protocols.

Members Praise Departing Maggio

TAC members heaped praise on Dave Maggio, director of market design and analytics, who is leaving ERCOT after 19 years for a position with Energy and Environmental Economics.

The energy consulting firm was most recently tasked with identifying a set of viable options and providing recommendations for the most suitable congestion cost savings test. (See ERCOT Successfully Deploys Real-time Co-optimization.)

Among those offering plaudits was former ERCOT COO Kenan Ögelman, now vice president of strategic projects and optimization at the Lower Colorado River Authority.

“The words that come to mind are ‘intelligence,’ ‘industriousness,’ ‘calm,’ ‘compassion’ and — the one I know for sure I don’t have in bunches — ‘structured.’ You’re so good at putting everything together and moving things along,” he said.

“I’ve always appreciated just how talented you are at taking very complex and technical matters,” Vistra’s Ned Bonskowski said. “You’ve always been very good about engaging directly on the level and helping break it down in ways that all the different stakeholders can engage with, identifying what the real concerns are and finding solutions that help make consensus happen. … That’s something that I think all of us as stakeholders will need to embody, and in the Dave Maggio spirit.”

“The way you deal with issues is unique and just a rare skill set of exceptional knowledge on subject matter. … You will be missed greatly,” Reliant Energy Retail Services’ Bill Barnes said.

Speaking remotely by phone, Maggio said he was “overwhelmed with all the kind words” and that it was an honor to work at ERCOT.

“Not just for ERCOT the company, but with ERCOT the market and ERCOT the stakeholders,” he said. “I’m very grateful to you all. I’m proud of the work we’ve done together over the last almost two decades. Perhaps I’ll have an opportunity to work with you all again in another capacity.”

Maggio’s last day at ERCOT is March 12.

LLWG Leadership Retained

Longhorn Power’s Bob Wittmeyer, chair of the Large Load Working Group, asked that TAC’s approval of the stakeholder group’s leadership be placed on the combination ballot as evidence of his “bigger idiot theory.”

“We did poll the [LLWG] for stupid volunteers, and we have the same idiots we had last time,” he cracked. “However, I would be OK if someone said this was a really bad idea and had a bigger idiot.”

Unfortunately for Wittmeyer and ERCOT’s Patrick Gravois, vice chair, there were no takers, and both retained their positions unanimously.

The combo ballot also included Pedernales Electric Cooperative staffer Eric Blakey’s nomination as vice chair of the Protocol Revision Subcommittee and singular revision requests for the protocols, the Operating (NOGRR) and Planning (PGRR) guides, and the Verifiable Cost Manual (VCM) that, if requiring board approval, will:

• • NPRR1314, PGRR139: Relocate each term and acronym from Planning Guide section 2: Definitions and Acronyms to the protocols and align related defined acronym usage. The NPRR also eliminates the abbreviations for “Current Year” and “Future Year” to avoid future confusion.
  • NOGRR281: Modify when an approved mitigation plan can be executed.
  • VCM44047: Remove the association between the term “long-term service agreement” and the abbreviations “LTSA,” which represents “Long-term System Assessment” in the Planning Guide.