NPRR571  ERS Weather-Sensitive Loads Requirements

This Nodal Protocol Revision Request (NPRR) establishes rules for participation in Emergency Response Service (ERS) by Loads with Demand response capability that is highly sensitive to weather conditions. It introduces appropriate calculations for qualification, baseline definition and monitoring and verification, availability, performance, and payment of Loads driven by weather, including especially residential Loads — and provides for their participation in ERS only during ERS Time Periods that correlate to peak weather conditions (e.g., Business Hours 2 and Business Hours 3 during the June-September ERS Standard Contract Term). Qualified Scheduling Entities (QSEs) representing weather-sensitive ERS Loads would be compensated for those Resources based solely on their performance during deployment events and during unannounced testing. Because ERCOT expects this category of Resource to consist primarily of aggregations of small customer Loads, which may be subject to significant growth and/or high levels of churn, QSEs representing weather-sensitive ERS Loads would be allowed to adjust the population of their aggregations on a monthly basis during an ERS Standard Contract Term under a specified process. The NPRR also establishes a structure of payment reductions for QSEs to protect against over-stated offers or projected growth in either aggregation population or average site performance. Weather-sensitive ERS Loads would be subject to a maximum of eight deployment events of up to three hours per event during an ERS Contract Period. In addition, weather-sensitive ERS Loads are subject to up to eight ERCOT-administered unannounced tests per ERS Standard Contract Term of up to three hours, which do not reduce the ERS Load’s event time obligation.