NPRR379  EILS Dispatch Sequence and Performance Criteria Upgrades

This Nodal Protocol Revision Request (NPRR) improves the operational value of Emergency Interruptible Load Service (EILS); and strengthens and clarifies a number of performance criteria for EILS by: Providing ERCOT Operators with enhanced flexibility for managing grid conditions during an Energy Emergency Alert (EEA) by requiring dispatch of EILS prior to or in conjunction with dispatch of Load Resources providing Responsive Reserve (RRS) in EEA Level 2; Improving dispatch of EILS by expanding the Dispatch Instruction to include an XML message in addition to the current Verbal Dispatch Instruction (VDI). This would make EILS dispatch consistent with Load Resource dispatch and would remove any potential ambiguity about dispatch status; Strengthening the 10-minute deployment requirement for EILS by establishing more specific metrics for both Qualified Scheduling Entities (QSEs) and EILS Load-level performance during the first interval of the deployment event, and affirming that a failure to meet the 10-minute requirement constitutes a violation of the Protocols; Establishing an availability "settlement weighting factor" that places higher emphasis on an EILS Load’s event performance over availability in an EILS Contract Period where EILS is deployed. For settlement purposes, availability would be weighted at 25% in an EILS Contract Period in which EILS was deployed but not exhausted. Availability would be weighted at between 0% and 25% in a Contract Period in which EILS was exhausted, via a sliding scale based on how early in the Contract Period EILS was exhausted; Allowing an EILS Load to be reassigned to a default baseline type if it was assigned to the alternate baseline prior to an EILS Contract Period due to a lack of sufficient historical meter data; Changing the event performance criteria for EILS Loads assigned to the alternate baseline to parallel the event performance calculation used for EILS Loads on a default baseline; Establishing conditions under which an EILS Load that falls short of an event performance factor of 0.95, yet demonstrably performs in an EILS deployment event, may avoid a six-month suspension. In such cases the payment to the QSE will be based on the actual event performance factor; these provisions apply to suspensions only; Simplifying availability requirements and settlement calculations for EILS by combining an EILS Load’s Time Period availability factors into a unified Load-weighted and time-weighted availability factor for a Contract Period; Adding clarity to QSE portfolio performance criteria; Establishing a list of QSE-specific documents that ERCOT shall be required to post to the Market Information System (MIS) Certified Area; and Making additional clarifying changes to EILS.