The Public Utility Commission met on December 14 to take up a number of items. The commission discussed the VOLL study, the ADER Pilot Project, reliability plan for the Permian Basin, among others. This was Commissioner McAdams’ last meeting. A video of the meeting and agenda can be found here.
This report is intended to give you an overview and highlight the various topics taken up. It is not a verbatim transcript of the discussions but is based upon what was audible or understandable to the observer.
Items to be taken up without discussion and consented: 2, 3, 4, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, and 15
Opening Comments
- Jackson – This is Commissioner McAdam’s last meeting; commissioners thanks him for his service
- McAdams – This is a time for new blood to come in and continue the momentum and work that we have started here; grateful for the ability to serve under this commission
- McAdams – Things have changed since 2021; will never be the same
Item 1: Docket No. 50788; SOAH Docket No. 473-20-4071.WS – Ratepayers Appeal of the Decision by Windermere Oaks Water Supply Corporation to Change Water and Sewer Rates. (Final Order)
- Cobos – This is a complicated case, commission is required to preserve Windermere’s financial integrity; should be authorized to recover outstanding legal debt
- Should look at the net annual revenue requirement which is lower than revenues they collected; should refund difference to their ratepayers
- Commission should determine which costs are fixed/variable
- Commissioners – Agree with Cobos’ memo
- Staff – Motion to approve proposal in part is for the reasons stated in your memo?
- Cobos – Correct
- Cobos – Move to adopt/reject the order in part; order for staff to conduct a number run consistent with my memo
- Motion passes
Item 5: Docket No. 53682 – Application of Utilities Investment Company, Inc. to Amend Its Certificate of Convenience and Necessity in Liberty County. (Order on Rehearing)
- Jackson – Should grant rehearing in part; grant rehearing to correct certificate to show they provide water service; should not make change to the list of counties, should seek a minor terrif change in a separate proceeding
- Commissioners – Agree with Jackson
- Motion to grant rehearing to correct certificate
- Motion passes
Item 6: Docket No. 53970 – Application of Vista Del Rio Property Owners Association, Inc. for Authority to Change Rates. (Final Order)
- Jackson – Recommend approval with modifications for accuracy and in line with the updated terrif of 2023
- Move to modify proposed order in line with Jackson’s memo
- Motion passes
Items 7 and 8 taken up together:
Item 7: Docket No. 54617 – Application of Texas Water Utilities, LP and Southern Horizons Development, Inc. for Sale, Transfer, or Merger of Facilities and Certificate Rights in Liberty and Montgomery Counties. (Order on Briefing)
Item 8: Docket No. 55157 – Application of Texas Water Utilities, LP and Midway Water Utilities, Inc. for Sale, Transfer, or Merger of Facilities and Certificate Rights in Grayson, Harris, Hill, Johnson, Montgomery, and Palo Pinto Counties. (Order on Briefing)
- Jackson – Should table these items in a future open meeting in order to take them up at the same time or when we discuss project 53924
- Commissioners – Agree
- Motion to table these items
- Motion passes
Item 16: Public comment for matters under the Commission’s jurisdiction but not specifically posted on this agenda.
Cyrus Reed, Lone Star Chapter of the Sierra Club
- Thanks McAdams for his service
- Submitted comments on winter preparedness; were concerned with ERCOT proposal to bring back closed power plants
- Request commission look at allowing private utilities to have winter demand response programs
- Next year commission should focus on SB 1699, ADER, and residential demand response
- Recommend continued expansion of ADER
- Recommend energy efficiency program expansion
- Recommend IIJA funds coordinated through agencies and private utilities
Item 30: Project No. 55837 – Review of Value of Lost Load in the ERCOT Market. (Discussion and possible action)
Matt Arth, ERCOT
- Filed a VOLL survey workplan last week
- Recommend we utilize customer consumer billing information and partner with entities to receive this information
- Encourage any NOIEs that are interested in working with us to reach out
- Texas Industrial, TXOGA and others have partnered with us to distribute survey out to those larger customers
Dr. Sanem Sergici, Brattle Group
- Overviews the survey plan; working with PlanBeyond to undergo this survey
- Survey implementation is challenging since ERCOT does not have direct contact with customers
- Will use CBCI information to send out these surveys and will coordinate with industrial groups to target the larger customers
- Will look at lost load and analyze the data and then get an ERCOT-wide lost load number
- Have budgeted 13 weeks for this survey time period
- Jackson – Agree with moving forward on this survey on option 3
- Cobos – Supportive of option 3 and would like to encourage NOIEs to work with ERCOT on this; request email addresses are included in the data
- Glotfelty – Do not just take data in urban areas, need to also look at rural areas
- Rebecca Zerwas, ERCOT – Are issuing a market notice on NOIEs participation
- McAdams – Glad to see industry participants playing ball on this; need to determine scarcity moving forward
Item 17: Discussion and possible action regarding implementation of state legislation affecting water and sewer companies, current and projected rulemakings and other projects, comments to other state agencies, and Commission priorities.
- Not discussed
Item 18: Discussion and possible action regarding implementation of state and federal legislation affecting telecommunications markets, current and projected rulemakings and other projects, comments to other state and federal agencies, and Commission priorities
- Not discussed
Item 19: Discussion and possible action regarding implementation of state and federal legislation affecting telecommunications markets, current and projected rulemakings and other projects, comments to other state and federal agencies, and Commission priorities
- Staff – Is fifth and final update on securitization of bond proceeds; is only $78k that cannot be returned; recommend all obligations to be fully discharged and close the project
- Glotfelty – Reducing uplift on these dollars that cannot be assigned is the right thing to do
- Jackson – Motion all funds be marked as fully discharged and this project be marked as closed
- Motion passes
Item 20: Project No. 53911 – Aggregate Distributed Energy Resource (ADER) ERCOT Pilot Project. (Discussion and possible action)
- McAdams and Glotfelty filed a joint memo
- McAdams – Filed a memo reflecting a continuance at the August 24 meeting
- Expand pathways of participation in this pilot; ERCOT has agreed that we should allow ADERs to qualify for ECRS
- Update telemetry validation; procedures for clarifying ER
- ADER task force’s final meeting is tomorrow; recommend NOIEs are included in the conversation
- Has been a significant success for the state; are the most innovative and dynamic system in the country
- This will help make the system more resilient and reliable in extreme weather conditions
- Glotfelty – Have not yet achieved the potential of what ADER can do
- This is critical if we want to make them permanent reliable tools
- Expanding this is the right thing to do; need critical mass for them to buy into this
- McAdams – Need to see geographics of this so our grid can be built out accordingly
- Cobos – Are moving to expansion into another ancillary service; know there will be changes to the governing documents that will be presented to the board
- Jackson – This hits on all the commission’s objectives
- McAdams – Thanks to ERCOT staff in being open to this
- Zerwas – Will be presenting our plan to expand to ECRS at tomorrow’s task force meeting
Item 21: Project No. 54166 – Compliance Project Related to Project No. 46304 (Oversight Proceeding Regarding ERCOT Matters Arising Out of Docket No. 45624). (Discussion and possible action)
- Not discussed
Item 22: Project No. 54444 – CY 2023 Reports of the Electric Reliability Council of Texas. (Discussion and possible action)
Dan, ERCOT
- Filed a report for the commission to review on peak summer conditions; issued an RFI to frequency responsive capability entities
- Results of RFI, at point of lowest frequency PRC 564 MW higher than what it should have been; due to 200 MW of reported capacity from thermal generators that were reporting they could get to a higher capacity than they could have gotten to
- Over 200 MW from wind generation resources; if curtailed have to respond to frequency and increase their output, should happen automatically, working with wind generators on these controls
- 156 MW from energy storage resources that were reported they could get to a significant output, hard to get power when the battery is at a low state of charge; may need to make rules/system changes to account for that especially as more batteries get on the system
- Glotfelty – Reports like this are things that are going to be more normal until the transmission line in the south is completed; know this is a constraint/problem now, hope we can look at all possible remedies to solve; should be utilizing market functions first rather than operator actions
- Glotfelty – Moved ERS prior to EEAs, so now there is a gap; need tools to fill that gap
- Glotfelty – Number of thermal outages in the north?
- 5900 MW in outages; about the same it was on the following day; was actually higher than the following day; forced outages went down in the afternoon
- Glotfelty – Was that system-wide?
- In both north and south and came down proportionally
- Cobos – Report notes that there was the highest instantaneous generation?
- Maximum amount the dispatchable fleet served on the ERCOT system; is net load
- Cobos – Is it due to the solar ramp down?
- Dispatchable had to keep up as solar ramped down; at night will need more dispatchable to help which includes batteries
- Cobos – Net peak load will become more critical as we get more solar on the system
- McAdams – State of change post EEA; once curtailment happened, how much state of charge energy was isolated and remained, how much was the state of change depleted in the north?
- Do not have those two pieces broken out; have a graphic for a state of charge for all batteries
- McAdams – This was a confluence of overloaded transmission system, generation backed down, frequency issues, etc.
- McAdams – Will be useful moving forward to get a better understanding of where the energy is being trapped/depleted regionally
- Cobos – Know this will be a problem while CPS transmission project is being built; what can we do to proactively deal with this situation of solar ramp downs and hot nights?
- Need to identify the need for these transmission projects more proactively
- Cobos – Incremental transmission improvements?
- Can replace switch or waive trap; incrementally will raise transfer capability of that line
- Looking at switching solutions proactively
- Glotfelty – Work with entities on their facility ratings? Any right to see if their methodologies are accurate?
- Transmission companies provide them to us; we have no authority on them, but we review and work with them on it
- Jackson – Are focusing on prevention in this report
Item 23: Project No. 54445 – CY 2023 Review of Rules Adopted by the Independent Organization. (Discussion and possible action)
- Jackson – ERCOT requested deferment of NPRR 1186 to January’s meeting; recommend interested parties to submit materials up to January 11
- Glotfelty – I am fine with this, have raised concerns about this NPRR; concerned about the staff time it is taking to analyzing this interim solution
- Cobos – Second Glotfelty’s point; know battery companies want certainty sooner rather than later; need to find a way to move past this issue
- Motion to approve administrative requests
- Motion passes
Item 24: Project No. 54584 – Reliability Standard for the ERCOT Market. (Discussion and possible action)
- Not discussed
Item 25: Project No. 55249 – Regional Transmission Reliability Plans. (Discussion and possible action)
- Not discussed
Item 26: Project No. 55250 – Transmission and Distribution System Resiliency Plans. (Proposal for Adoption)
- Jackson – Table this item until January’s meeting for more time to review
Item 27: Project No. 55320 – RFP for Consulting Services Relating to Electric Emergency Operations Plan and Weather Emergency Preparedness Reports. (Discussion and possible action with respect to delegation of authority to the Executive Director)
- Jackson – Motion to approve proposed order
- Motion passes
Item 28: Project No. 55421 – Texas Advanced Nuclear Reactor Working Group. (Discussion and possible action)
- Glotfelty – Had a recent meeting, decreased amount of working groups, they are up and running
Item 29: Project No. 55718 – Reliability Plan for the Permian Basin Under PURA §39.167. (Discussion and possible action)
- Cobos – Held a workshop in Midland to help develop the reliability plan for the Permian Basin; stakeholders noted a need for additional transmission and dispatchable resources
- Cobos – HB 5066 requires commission to direct ERCOT to develop a reliability plan by January 2024
- Cobos – Proposed order sets forth a procedural process and timeline to ensure ERCOT develops and delivers a plan; to propose to the PUC on July 2024, provides an opportunity for stakeholders feedback, and then final approval in September 2024
- Cobos – Will expand this to other areas of the state after this bill is implemented
- McAdams – Is a special case due to that statutory direction
- Jackson – Move to approve the proposed order
- Motion passes
Item 31: Project No. 37344 – Information Related to the Entergy Regional State Committee. (Discussion and possible action)
- Not discussed
Items 32 and 33 taken up together:
Item 32: Project No. 41211 – Information Related to the Organization of MISO States. (Discussion and possible action)
- With McAdams leaving, Glotfelty will serve on this organization
Item 33: Project No. 41210 – Information Related to the Southwest Power Pool Regional State Committee. (Discussion and possible action)
- With McAdams leaving Cobos will serve on SPP
- McAdams – Winter capacity plan was rejected by FERC because winter outage policy is not harmonized with summer policy
- McAdams – Working to have a policy to propose in January 2024; goal to have this in place for winter of 2024-2025
Item 34: Project No. 51879 – Information Related to the Western Energy Imbalance Market. (Discussion and possible action)
- Not discussed
Item 35: Discussion and possible action on electric reliability; electric market development; powerto-choose website; ERCOT oversight; transmission planning, construction, and cost recovery; and electric reliability standards and organizations arising under federal law.
- Not discussed
Item 36: Discussion and possible action regarding implementation of state and federal legislation affecting electricity markets including current and projected rulemakings and other projects, comments to other state and federal agencies and Commission priorities.
- Not discussed
Item 37: Project No. 54455 – CY 2023 Rulemaking Calendar. (Discussion and possible action).
- Not discussed
Item 38: Project No. 55156 – Implementation Activities 88th Legislature (R.S.) (Discussion and possible action)
- Not discussed
Item 39: Discussion and possible action regarding agency review by Sunset Advisory Commission, operating budget, strategic plan, appropriations request, project assignments, correspondence, staff reports, agency administrative issues, agency organization, fiscal matters and personnel policy.
- Not discussed
Item 40: Discussion and possible action regarding customer service issues, including but not limited to correspondence and complaint issues.
- Not discussed
Item 41: Discussion and possible action on infrastructure reliability, emergency management, and homeland security.
- Not discussed
Item 42: Adjournment for closed session
- The commission did not meet in closed session