AUSTIN, Texas — Technical Advisory Committee Chair Randa Stephenson and Kenan Ögelman, ERCOT’s vice president of commercial operations, last week suggested a workshop to discuss how ERCOT and its market participants exchange data and handle changes to data reports.

Denton Municipal Electric’s Lance Cunningham raised the issue by noting that staff told the Market Data Working Group it was issuing a 30-day notice — as required by ERCOT’s protocols — to change an existing wind-projection data report. Cunningham said that change would require an estimated 30 person-hours to make changes to the muni’s systems.

Several stakeholders sided with Cunningham, pointing out modest software changes can cost tens of thousands of dollars.

“Multiply that cost by the number of [market participants] that have to do it, and you’re in the millions pretty quickly,” The Wind Coalition’s Walter Reid said. “We need to be aware of what we’re doing.”

“[ERCOT’s] ability to unilaterally change reports has been a concern of mine,” said Calpine’s Randy Jones, representing independent generators. “I realize there are passages in the protocols to provide data to ERCOT upon [its] request, but the time may be ripe for a discussion that we start putting criteria around that … and mitigate the huge impact it has.”

Ögelman, while noting the change will actually take place June 30, did agree with Cunningham that such changes create inconveniences.

“It can be burdensome to adjust to [changes],” he said. “Long term, do we need to start thinking about another way we exchange data, rather than people scraping it off a report? Right now, this is the only way certain people can get this data. I think it’s very important to consider whole systemwide impact of changes.”

“You need a report you can input and utilize,” said Sharyland Utilities’ B.J. Flowers. “Maybe you utilize the workshop as business-requirement gathering, and hand it over to the market data group to work on the details.”

Stephenson told stakeholders she is working with ERCOT to schedule the workshop.

NPRRs Approved, NOGRRs Tabled

TAC members approved five Nodal Protocol Revision Requests:

• NPRR 741: Clarifications to estimated aggregate liability (EAL) and total potential exposure (TPE) credit exposure calculations.
• NPRR 744: Reliability unit commitment trigger for the reliability deployment price adder and alignment with RUC settlement.
• NPRR 745: Change emergency response system availability from an hourly to 15-minute interval evaluation, plus other minor changes.
• NPRR 746: Adjustments due to negative load.
• NPRR 748: Revisions associated with NERC reliability standard COM-002-4 and other clarifications associated with dispatch instructions.

Luminant’s Amanda Frazier, chair of the Protocol Revisions Subcommittee, said NPRR 744 exceeded ERCOT’s $100,000 impact-analysis threshold, but she noted staff filed comments that determined the ISO would have saved more than $9 million “over the last several months” if the revisions had been in place.

“We at PRS felt that was adequate justification for approving this process,” Frazier said.

The committee also tabled a Nodal Operating Guide Revision Request and an appeal of a second NOGRR:

• NOGRR 151: Alignment with NPRR 748, revisions associated with COM-002-4 and other clarifications associated with dispatch instructions.
• NOGRR 149 would exempt distribution service providers without transmission or generation facilities from having to procure designated transmission operator services from a third-party provider if their annual peak is less than 25 MW. Jones expressed sympathy for the small municipalities most affected. “On the other hand,” he said, “it doesn’t seem to be fair to the market. Small entities are not carrying their obligations.”

Staff Share Reports, Updates

Staff shared the Emergency Response Service (ERS) report that is filed annually with the Public Utility Commission of Texas. ERCOT procures ERS three times during the year for four-month terms. Participants can provide the service for one or more of four time periods, which are designed to allow flexibility for customers during traditional business hours.

ERS expenditures are capped at $50 million. Staff said expenditures for last year were $48.8 million.

TAC also approved the Retail Market Subcommittee’s goals for 2016 and discussed staff updates on ERCOT’s debt strategy and changes to ERCOT’s antitrust admonition and guidelines.

ERCOT Treasurer Leslie Wiley shared feedback from her recent report to the Finance and Audit Committee. She said the ISO uses congestion revenue rights (CRRs) auction receipts — with a limit of $100 million — along with debt and revenue to fund its liquidity. Wiley said the committee encouraged her to use CRRs when available to fund long-term projects, but there are questions about how to pay for significant unbudgeted initiatives.

The ISO currently has an Aa3 credit rating. “We want to maintain that,” Wiley said.

ERCOT’s legal department is revising the antitrust guidelines to be a position statement. Nathan Bigbee, ERCOT’s senior corporate counsel, said there shouldn’t be any cause for concern, “as long as actions ERCOT takes fall within [its] authority under federal or state laws.”