Afternoon. (item:1:Peter Lake Opening Statements)
My name is Peter Lake, chairman of the Public Utilities
Commission of Texas and with me today is
Brad Jones interim CEO of ERCOT here to talk to you
all about our SARA CDR and summer readiness. We'll
also address the grid conditions over this past weekend
As for summer we're ready. Our reforms are working
Our transition from a crisis based business model to
a liability based business model is showing results
Our combination of conservative grid management and
reforms here at PUC and ERCOT have also shown results.
Brad will speak to the specific numbers in the SARA
and CDR, but going into this summer, I want Texans to
know that we will continue to operate with a margin
of safety. Meaning that we'll have more reserves than
before, we're going to continue operating with an abundance
of caution, meaning that we'll bring more generators
online sooner rather than later. We have a higher reserve
margin going into this summer than we did last summer
and this grid is more reliable than it has ever been
before.
The reforms I speak of were tested last weekend. As
you know, we had record breaking heat, record breaking
demand for electricity combined with low wind generation
and an unusually high number of generators tripping
offline in a short period of time
meant that we had thight grid conditions. Uh the combination
of these factors led us to issue a conservation request
as you know conservation is another tool in our tool
kit that we used to ensure reliability and it's important
to note that in the past before we transition to this
reliability based business model in the past under
similar circumstances, no conservation notice would
have been issued. This was ERCOT being proactive about
the tight grid conditions and informing Texans of their
ability to help contribute to grid liability by
conserving electricity. We were tested last weekend
and our reforms worked. ERCOTs new control of
generator outages means that we had more power online
going into the weekend then we would have otherwise
and the extra reserves that we have been procuring
it meant that we had an additional margin of safety
when generators started tripping offline. Brad. Thank
you.
(item:2:Brad Jones Opening Statements) I'll certainly answer any questions you've got relative
to the SARA and the CDR. I know there's a lot of
information out there. I think bottom line for each
of you is that we feel very confident about this summer
Our reserves have gone up relative to last summer in
fact Four years ago in 2019 we had roughly about 8-9%
reserves last year. We had around 12% or two years
ago we had 12%. Last year we had 15-16 and this year
we have 23% reserves. So you can see our reserves have
grown over each of those years. We feel very confident
about our position this summer. Now as always we have
to be careful about those times where it is both dark
and still we have to make sure that we have the dispatchable
generation to balance our fleet when wind and
solar are not available to us but we're very happy
to have that wind and solar development we've had over
the past few years and it's making our grid stronger
I also want to address this past week. This past week
is an example of ERCOT doing what ERCOT needs to do
to prepare for these types of events. We're having
an extraordinary May, what may be the all time hottest
May on record. We're certainly trending that way today.
And so with the all time hottest may on record at the
same time that we also have a great number of our generators
are dispatchable generators that are offline that
are doing regular maintenance. It became very important
that ERCOT began to plan for what happened on friday
as much as a week ahead and we were bringing units
back out of outages, making sure they'd be prepared
for us. We were communicating with the market, making
sure that each of our market participants, all of the
industry was prepared for this event. When friday came
up, we were surprised by several generting units that
failed right close to peak. Absent that, there would
not have been a conservation appeal conservation request
There would not have been uh probably much communication
that had gone out because it would have been a normal
friday that was very hot. But with those six generators
tripping off between about 12:30 and 4 o'clock that afternoon
it became apparent that we needed to take action. Now
our action on conservation is something that I hope
that each of you will understand conservation is a
good thing. Conservation is what we should do every
day in our in our lives. Conservation is how we treat
our use of water during the summers and when it's very
hot, I hope that each of you will turn to conservation
as a way to both lower your bill as well as to
help all of us in the market. And that's what we called
for. In the past, we would call for conservation at
the last moment or even beyond that when we're already
into an emergency condition, but now we're moving conservation
up early because we know that all Texans can help each
other and help the grid to be even stronger. So we're
doing that in advance of these situations. What we
found on friday was a rapidly changing situation for
the grid and we decided to make a call for conservation
on that Friday and throughout the weekend, and it worked.
Texans responded, and I want to tell all of you that
responded thank you. Thank you on behalf of the state
Thank you on behalf of ERCOT. Not only those that
responded to conservation, which essentially brought
3-400 MW of additional generation back to ERCOT, but
also all of those generators that worked very quickly
to bring those units back and return them to service
They were available to us on saturday and sunday and
allowed us to keep the grid reliable for all Texans
Thank you. Thank you brad.
(item:3:Peter Lake-Blueprint for Reform) As I said, this grid is more reliable than it has ever
been before and we're going to continue improving reliability.
As you know, this commission adopted a blueprint for
reform last December and we are moving forward with
phase two of implementing those reforms which will
prioritize long term reliability and transition the
economics of the ERCOT market to on demand power sources
I look forward to continuing to work with my fellow
commissioners to deliver the results on SB3 that
the legislature and the governor demand and I look
forward to delivering the results of that Phase two
market reform to the legislature and the governor for
their consideration before the next legislative session.
(item:4:Power Plants Staying Online) At this point we're happy to take any questions. How
can you ensure the power will stay on this summer when
we've already seen power plants tripped offline due
to heat, especially this weekend maintenance windows
have shortened as a result of you canceling maintenance
because of this recent heat. I know the lights are
gonna stay on because of all the reforms we've put in
place and because that when we do encounter challenges
like we saw last weekend, the multiple reforms are
complementary and build off of each other to create
even greater reliability and that's how we know we
can keep the lights on this summer. (item:4:Congestion In Houston) We've been trying
to get an interview with you or your office Or another
commissioner for the last six weeks. We need more transmission
lines and you guys are doing a lot to expedite that
process. So how many lines do we need in addition to
what's underway now? How long do you expect to relieve
the congestion in places like Houston? And then what
are you actually doing to uh, make sure that the landowners
are actually listened to beyond just you know, them
coming to the PUC meetings. This commission took swift action
last summer in advancing a large transmission line
out of the Rio grande Valley to connect that generation
to the rest of the state and also ensure that those
residents have access to other parts of the states
generation access. So that was uh, that was swift action
by this commission utilizing part of statute has never
been used before, unprecedented action to ensure reliability
by building these new transmission projects. In addition
we're in the process of implementing new legislation
that accounts for more variables. In addition to economics
cost and reliability to enhance our transmission planning
and processing. That's in process now. But like all
transmission projects, they're large and they take
a long time landowners, landowners are an important
part of transmission planning and there a key part
of this
Routing transmission lines is always a tough balance
between those landowners rights and concerns and the
need for the state for reliability. Uh, and this, this
commission is very diligent and thorough in balancing
all of those considerations in every, every transmission
case we consider. (item:4:Sources Of New Generation) When we talk about setting new demand
peaks almost every summer for the next 10 years. It
makes sense because you know, Texas is growing. We're
going to continue to set new records. Um, the governor's
office has stated that Texas has 15% more power generation
capacity this year compared to last year. Would you
mind just kind of walking us through? Uh, what exact
generation forms that's come from? Is that coming from
renewables? Is it coming from thermal? Just kind of
outlining the specific generation that that texas has
been able to add this past year alone. In just round
numbers alone, we have roughly by the end of this year
we'll have roughly about Another 9000 MW of solar.
Uh, In addition, we'll have, I said that wrong, we'll
have 7000 megawatts of solar. In addition we'll have
another 2 to 3000 megawatts of wind generation and
about 1000 megawatts of natural gas generation. So
you can see it's coming from a broad spectrum, but
much of that additional generation is from the renewable
side. (item:4:Communication for Conservation Requests) And I do have a quick question about the communication
from this past weekend. On Friday, I know you were explaining
that this was kind of a precautionary ask for conservation
but the language was pretty similar to previous conservation
alerts. Um, I was just wondering if first of all there's
any concern that prematurely asking for conservation
going forward could maybe urge Texans not to conserve
and maybe, you know, we didn't get another update from
ERCOT itself on the twitter accounts or on the website
at all through the weekend. The only thing that was
posted on friday. So do you think that communication
could be maybe a little more clear going forward? Especially
again, we're already sending records here in May. Do
you think that communication could be a little more
clear? Communication can always be better, I agree.
So we're looking back at that communication that we
put out and making sure that we refined that language
I even stumbled over a second ago. This wasn't a conservation
alert. It wasn't a conservation appeal. It was just
a request to Texans to help us out over this weekend
So it wasn't that we're in a dangerous situation at
all. It was, it was to make sure that we're doing everything
possible to keep the grid reliable so we need to improve
that language and will commit to that. In
addition, I think it would be good for us to have a
communication at the end of one of these cycles to
make sure that we respond let everyone know where we
are and kind of give us some feedback to what the response
was like and as I mentioned earlier, we saw roughly
three or 400 megawatts of response out of Texans and
that that is a great number for us to see. So that's
why I was expressing my thanks earlier, thanks for the
question. I was gonna say too, because ERCOT very clearly outlines on its
website, normal conditions versus conservation alert vs emergency
levels, do you think in the future in a press release
maybe it could be included? Like what level we're currently
at? Just again, make it more clear how dire the current
situation is. Good. That that's a very good suggestion
I appreciate that. And the important part is that we
is at this time we didn't wait until the emergency
to request for conservation. 2, 3 years ago, that would
not have been the case. This is part of ERCOT being
and the PUC being more proactive, more communicative
with Texans to make sure that everybody knows the situation
on the grid and what they can do to help ensure reliability
((item:4:Reporter 2 Question 2) Do yoou know why those six generators went offline on friday
and how that can be prevented as we expect more high
temperatures? Yes, we do. Now, the information related
to those generation outages will be available to each
of you tomorrow. Not tomorrow on thursday. On our website
So the front page of our website has a location for
generation outages. So you can find out all the information
that we currently have on, why the units went out what
times they went out. Bottom line, we really don't
have any concerns specifically with the various reasons
It was a coincidence of a number of units coming off
at the same time, but the coincidence of that happened
at or near peak. So the first unit came off around
12:30 the last one came off around four o'clock. And
it was a combination of those six units as well as
a few smaller ones that we haven't mentioned so far
coming off near the same time that put us in this posture
of sending out this request to consumers. Just wanted
to make sure that we were informing consumers as each
of you have asked us to do of what the condition is
on the grid and what may be happening that we're watching
that's what we're trying to do is make sure that you
had the best information available. (item:4:When Did You Know About The Generators Tripping Offline) Can you kind of
walk us through in some detail what happened on friday
Like, what did you know? And when did you know it?
Um I know you met with the governor earlier in the
day. Was that just coincidental? What was, what did
you know? When did you know it? On friday? That was
highly coincidental. That was his standard summer briefing
uh, on the same information we're presenting to you
all today and the turn of events with the tripping
generators was something that developed like brad said
over a period of hours, 12:30 was the first one. Of
course one generator is not a problem. The second one
it was a bit later, brad can go through the timetable
on that, but it was, it was completely unrelated and
as we saw a cascading sequence of events over a period
of hours, certainly not a discrete event, a moment
in time. And the key to what, what the chairman is
talking about is that we, we suffered that type of
a problem. And yet the, the condition of the grid did
not go into any of our alert status is one of you
mentioned, you know, a different alert criterias. It
did not go into an advisory, did not go into a watch
Did not go into an emergency alert because we had prepared
So you asked for a sequence of events. We started about
a week ahead of time, calling on generators to see
if we could get their generation outages moved
to a different time, making that additional generation
available to everyone. By the time we arrived that
morning we've been meeting and talking with with the
chairman and other commissioners about the condition
of the grid entirely throughout the week. Making sure
they understood what we were going to see that afternoon
we all felt very comfortable with what we were going
to see that afternoon. Then when these generation outages
occurred because of that level of comfort because of
that preparation, because we are bringing on more generation
reserves than we ever have in the past. That level
of units coming offline did not create a condition
which put us into any of those criterias for emergency
It's because we're taking these advanced actions megawatts
at one point. So our PRC excuse for those of you that
I need to explain this but our physical responsive
capability which is the amount of generation that we
can get in a short amount of time. It doesn't mean
all of the generation that's available but what can
we get in a short amount of time. It did fall for
just a few minutes below 3,000 to 2,985 I believe was
the number but it was back within 30 minutes. And so
it did not create a concern for us and it was back
within 30 minutes because of the additional reserves
We procured that margin of safety. That's where we're
able to deploy that And those are the redundant layers
that we're talking about and how these reforms complement
and build on each other. (item:4:Any Indication Of Working Plants Too Hard) friday. Calling the concern
um, just the overall approach to the grid. This idea
of operating conservatively, is there some truth to
the notion of, you know, you can have too much in reserves
and you're pushing the plants that are online too hard
Is there any indication that's what happened? The outcome
of the events on Friday is a testament and endorsement
of the reforms that have been enacted as a result of
SB3 and a stark demonstration of how effective
they have they are when faced with the combination
of not not one negative impact on the grid, but three
hot record high demand, low wind and a unique number
of outages in quick succession. All three of those
events occurring at one time. It is extremely rare
and yet the lights stayed on our grid was really reliable
and we didn't even get into an emergency status. What if that happened in July or August
when temperatures were in the triple digits. We're prepared for
that too. And that's why we do these, established these
margins of safety every day, most days we don't need
it. But the thing that's important is the days when
we do need it. We've got those reserves. We bring those
generators on sooner rather than later. Before we go
there. I do want to finish up this question. So one
of, one of the parts of the answer to your question
is that during May, recall, we have a lot of generation
that's on outage, a vast number of generations that
is on outage for changing the oil, getting the units
ready for the summer. We don't have that in the summer
And so that is an additional amount of generation that
will be available to us in a matter of weeks. And that
makes all the difference in the grid. Thanks. (item:4:Using the SARA Report to Forecast) To that
reserve capacity, The SARA report this time has the percentage
a lot lower than say the spring or last winter. And
I know that you've changed the formula in order to
speak. So if you were able to use that for the spring
for what we've just experienced, how would that impact
it? So we can compare our buffer for summer versus
our buffer anticipated buffer for your comparison.
I would ask that you go back to the SARA for last
summer. So you need to compare season this season and
you'll see that last summer has basically the same
level of of various scenarios. And in those various
scenarios you can compare off the improvements that
you'll see in the grid this year. Has it changed the
formula now? So considered other things or the generating
units? Yeah, I I don't know that. I don't believe that
there's enough changes that would affect that comparison
So I think you can go back to that comparison and compare
each of those scenarios 1-1 and you'll see a significant
amount of additional generation we have available this
year. I think what you're referencing is the effort
by the commission and ERCOT to come up with a new
version, updated version of Cr Cr which I've asked
Commissioner McAdams to spearhead and he in fact
had a meeting this morning on that with key stakeholders
That's a work in progress. Uh We we will always strive
to continuously improve the products we put out for
the public for the purposes of this summer, like brad
said, it's apples to apples comparison is this SARA
for 2022 Looking vs last summers and last summer the
planning reserve margin for the the Summer SARA was
15.7% reserve margin going to this summer we have a
planning reserve margin of 22.8%. So a solid increase
as you can see. (item:4:Abnormal Circumstances That Stress the Grid)
what are some of those circumstances that might not
be considered normal that could cause problems with
the great you know, I had a second question, you had
mentioned that that conservation asked for something
that you guys are being proactive. A lot of the people
in the community system that I spoke with. I took it
as I here comes ERCOT again. So how do you change the
public perception to realize that in your mind that
proactive as opposed to ineffective. Sure. So unusual
circumstances. I'd define the six generators tripping
off in a matter of a couple of hours. That's the kind
of unusual circumstances that we prepare for. And that's
why we build in these redundancies. Uh, like brad said
when circumstances dictated, we issued the conservation
request and unlike in the past we issued it for the
entire weekend because we didn't want to do the whiplash
of concern for a few hours. Don't know how you can
stop back and forth. And we were very, we tried to
be very clear and upfront with people about the hours
when it was important and how they could contribute
to help. After a tragedy like Uri Yes, absolutely.
We we must regain the trust of our customers and we
will and this increased transparency. These proactive
efforts are a part of that. Uh And as always conservation
is a a tool that we have used and will continue to
use and like brad said well continually improve the
way we communicate with our customers and will continuously
strive to enhance reliability as we move forward. (item:4:Allocating Liability Costs to Renewables) Chairman
you mentioned Phase two market reforms. Is there anything
in there that fulfills the governor's directive to
allocate the liability costs to renewables. That was that
will be under consideration as we developed Phase two
But that was also addressed in our adoption of Phase
one. In considering the E. C. R. S. New Ancillary service
product. I apologize for the acronyms but essentially
the the fast ramp product that is designed to offset
the sunsetting and dropping solar that cost will be
the commission decided will be assigned to the resources
causing it in this case the the intermittent resources
before you guys
the blueprint that was adopted in december includes
two components the Load side reliability mechanism
and the backstop reserve service. We're in the process
of building those market product. Those market designs
out both of those will put new steel on the ground
will incentivize new dispatchable generation and
dispatchable resources in ERCOT which the governor
and the legislature have been very clear is is a big
priority. We are focused on that priority and delivering
those results for the governor and Legislature by next
session. (item:4:Who's Involved In Making the Conservation Requests) Who was involved in the deliberations over
whether to issue the conservation call because that's
that obviously is a thing that is not politically palatable
right now. So who was involved in those discussions
That's an operational call that comes from the ERCOT
control room to Brad, Brad and I discuss and make a
decision and brad and his team did an excellent job
issuing that conservation call in a very, very short
amount of time. (item:4:Addressing The Grids Aging Thermal Fleet) Can you address the grids, aging thermal
fleet? Can it really depend on these older plants not
to go down?
We are taking in all of the above approach to our grid
We want to leverage the benefits of all types of our
resources, thermal renewable uh and new storage, distributed
storage and new technologies yet to be deployed. We're
aware that we've got a aging thermal fleet and that's
very much the motivation of our Phase two market reform
efforts and that's why we're moving the economics moving
the revenues in this market towards On demand power
When Texans turn the light switch on, they need electricity
And that's why the phase two reforms are
so focused on on demand power. What's what's just your
message to Texans? I mean getting this notice this
weekend,
The reforms are working the lights are going to stay
on this summer and thank you for playing your part
in ensuring grid reliability were all part of this
together and reforms are working. (item:4:Will The Grid Work This Summer) People have talked
about the six plants already going down that kind of
ties in to the aging infrastructure,
this come out and say it's going to work, Is that something
anybody can be sure of? Absolutely. We've got over 700
generators in ERCOT six of them had a bad day and we've
implemented all the reforms you heard me talk about
we've got a bigger reserve margin going into this summer
than we had last summer. We got through last summer
we got through last winter and we're gonna get through
this summer, we're better prepared than we ever have
been before. This, this grid operator and this team
is doing a great job managing for reliability first
rather than crisis based business model. And so that's
that's how we can say with absolute confidence to Texans
that the lights will stay on this summer when you talk
about some questions from reporters.
Thanks. Any questions josh and company
very constructively right now. Anybody under the goal
No question, Press 10 in telephone keypad.
We have one person that's queued up one moment will
gather their names, but once again, you have a question
zero on your telephone keypad?
Yeah.
Right, josh. Let us know if that questions uh, queued
up in the meantime we can continue to do some questions
It looks like are we didn't have we have a question
I know, I know. Jose tell people go ahead. (item:4:Energy Emergency Alert) Yeah, thanks
for taking the question. Uh, 1 Question I had was
you keep saying that you didn't have to declare an
energy emergency alert. But have you done that? It's
my understanding that would signal to utilities issue
push notifications and and do their own conservation
that they didn't have to do in the absence of such
an alert. So I mean shouldn't you have actually done
an alert in order to conserve when that have led to
more conservation? I don't understand. You might not
have reached the threshold of the conservation with
the goals would not have made more sense. Yeah. We
didn't feel like we needed to go to that level most
Uh, what we did do is is several of the utility partners
called us and asked us and we, we didn't ask any of
them to take that next step, but we did indicate to
them that it was on their own, their own decision making
if they decided to take that next step. Many of them
did. But we didn't issue the the full conservation
alert because we didn't feel like it went to that level
of necessity.
I also think that also maybe for a lot of us in
the media, this has been kind of a confusing thing
given the amount of, of media coverage that was around
the winter cold fronts that we had where there was
some concern about grid stability. We got, you know
we got tighter on the grid last friday than during
any of those events. But as I've been mentioned in
the past, there was very little communication. What
what went into that? Like why did I buy that big difference
Why that why all the press conferences and all the
attention during the winter and then, and then uh the
winter events were broader than just power grid related
That's the activation of the state operations center
and the corresponding media interaction was through
the state operations center. Uh so I'd have to defer
to them on on how they manage that. As always we are
available where you continue to do these seasonal press
conferences. Uh and as you saw last week were being
more proactive about communicating with Texans when
grid conditions are tight and when they can play a
role in conserving power. And one last thing is, you
know, I just, and I think you were asked earlier, but
it's just that he's operating with large capacity margins
for months and months. These power plants are being
asked to stay available uh to levels not seen before
The last big blackout. Is that leading to a risk of
greater surprise breakdowns. Like we saw on friday
when these machines need to be, I did not watch the
time being 19 and we've heard reports that are being
asked to stand in line when they maybe shouldn't no
no concerns at all. Plant power plants staying online
as part of our additional reserves. And like I said
we do that every day because we never know when we'll
need that additional margin of safety. We needed it
on friday. And it was incredibly important to have
at that moment in time. So we'll continue, we'll continue
to maintain that margin of safety. But we're also continuously
working with our generators to ensure that they can
take adequate maintenance outages. And most importantly
that the ones that work with ERCOT like brad mentioned
the generators who delayed outages to be ready for
last friday. We're ensuring that archive prioritizes
those generators to make sure that the ones that run
when we need them the most are in front of line for
maintenance outages. So all of our generator fleets
are ready for this coming summer.
Any other questions on the phone?
Yes. Our next question is from the lineup Shelby Webb
Mm hmm.
(item:4:Reporter 13 Question 1) Hi, I'm speaking about the actual hardware generations
that has been
compared to previous years and what we expected people
the rest of the year. The cost increase of the additional
reserves we've procured starting last june Through
may totals to just about $1 per household per month
So Texans for for $1 per month are receiving a vastly
more reliable grid to ensure that the lights stay on
Did you give me an a $5 figures about them. Mm hmm
No, The, I don't have the total dollar figure. Uh,
in front of me. I think it's roughly $380 million 99.5
cents per household per home per month.
Okay. Feeling not very large.
Okay.
For
the painter ability, reliability, We'll continue purchasing
the extra reserves. We do not expect those costs to
increase above that much more or below that $1 per
household per month. And in fact The that $1 per household
per month includes the dramatic increase in natural
gas prices which of course are unrelated to the power
grid. So if anything, if gas prices decrease, uh those
numbers should decrease as well.
Sure. And even if a spirit female reports accurately
accounted for shooting weather scenarios, an increase
out there sort of unusual. And doctor right now Yeah
The CDR and SARA evaluate a wide variety of scenarios
including extra high demand for power. So yes,
that's exactly what they are. Scenario analysis. They're
not predictions. Uh they're they're nothing more than
arithmetic and they certainly don't uh take into full
account are the multitude of reforms we've implemented
there a useful tool. But just that a tool
I would. Mhm. He shouldn't play holiday.
Can you repeat that?
So people, so it's just a risk descending as well that
people shouldn't be facing a lot of decisions on it
Is that what you're saying? Like I'm just trying to
have. Like
I'm sorry, what's the question to the relevance towards
what? Well towards the parents er reports that they're
just sort of a richness and they're not taking into
account a lot of useful forms, are they valid? Yeah
So what we, this is brad again, what we want to make
sure is that we're giving you the information and the
information to all Texans that they need, that they
want to see. We want to make sure that you're seeing
what are expected cases. And we've given you that we
want you to see what an extreme event might look like
And we've given you that and if you went back to the
SARA for spring, you'll see an extreme event on heat
that looks very much very similar to what we just went
through. So that's how you can use the information
just to, to provide you some level of comfort really
The focus should be on what are expected cases and
that's where we delivered. And I think it's a very
good story
josh as we move on with the questions, can you ask
the callers to identify the organization they're representing
I do that. Thank you. Our next question to line Line
of Field,
especially the organization's ability. Your line is
open? (item:4:Bill Jankowski-Plants Not Having Enough Time for Maintenance) Yeah. Hi, Bill Jankowski with the Dallas morning
news here, um, similar question. The one that most
had the uh, with the hot weather arriving much earlier
than expected and as was reported the texas tribune
this morning. It's some of the power plants tripping
off on friday being ones that were under maintenance
preparing for the summer. So my question is is there
any worries about the these power plants not having
enough time, not being able to complete necessary maintenance
in time for the people demand in the summer. And if
ERCOT as the puc are doing anything to address that
Yeah, so, great. And I appreciate the question. We're
working with the generators to make sure that they
have the amount of time that they need to make sure
that the units are ready for this summer. In fact,
one of those units that was asked to move their outage
is now entering into its own outage. Uh so that it can
do the work that they need to do for the summer. The
the condition of those units? Uh yeah, I'm always concerned
when we see quite a few units go off at the same
time, I'm always concerned about the condition of these
units. We have to make sure that we have the right
incentives in place in our market to both attract and
retain new generation of that very type of that dispatchable
type. And so I know that the chairman is working
on that through their Phase two, all of the commissioners
are working on that effort through Phase Two. And we're
working to make sure as you asked that generators have
the outage time, they need to get their equipment in
good shape for the summer. Thank you. And importantly
Phil, I'll note that as ERCOT takes control of the
outage schedule, that their proposed methodology for
next fall provides 15% more time for outages than were
actually taken last fall by these generators. So they
will in fact be more time for outages, not less. We're
just making sure the outages don't all happen at once
And if I may, I've got another question, I just wanted
to see if uh because as brad had a reported about a
month ago or sometimes less money, uh Cryptocurrency
being, you know, on on such a rise and planning to
add a tremendous amount of demand um, to the grid over
the next couple of years, is there, you know, that
part of what goes into the SARA report and you guys
have learn about the continued added demands from a
very electricity intensive process. Thank you for the
question. So, we have roughly about 3-400 MW of Cryptocurrency
in Texas today. Uh we did check their performance throughout
this event. They performed admirably as we would have
expected them to. And so from that perspective, we
don't have a concern. We have started a process to
really look at how those loads are interconnected to
our system to make sure that we're getting as much
value out of them as possible. And that process includes
a task force that has brought many of those partners
together, those Bitcoin and Cryptocurrency type developers
together, they've been very cooperative with us and
we look forward to being able to resolve those outstanding
questions. So he's saying that during that time when
the request was
just kind of shut down temporarily, they operated as
we would have expected under that condition. Yes.
Alright. Thanks guys.
Maybe one more question from the phone line Josh. We
have no further questions before mate.
Alright. Any other questions here at the commission
office? (item:4:Concerns About Market Manipulation) Do y'all have any concerns about market manipulation
given that all these plants came off at relatively
at the same time. No concerns at this time but are
Independent Market Monitor is tasked with investigating
any potential market manipulation and if they see signs
of trouble, they'll report it to the commission through
the appropriate process. (item:4:Can You Explain the Two Extreme Risk Scenarios) Can you explain the two extreme
risk scenarios where there will not be enough power
from the SARA. So as you look across those extreme
scenarios and even the first page which has more moderate
scenarios, you'll see that we change one of the the
variables to an extreme level. And then as you go across
that page, we'll add a second extreme variable. And
by the third item, that third column, there are three
extreme scenarios occurring at one time. So as you
can imagine as you go across that chart, there's lower
and lower probability of those things occurring. Our
main three variables are generation outages, low wind
or renewable output and high heat in the cold, very
cold temperatures. So those are the extremes that we
adjust each time. And so that last category, that last
column has all three of those in the extreme. And yes
we do see some concerns in that category but it is
a very unlikely scenario. And so as you move back away
from that one or two of these high heat, even high
generation outages, we seem fairly comfortable as we
move up that that ladder. But as we said before, these
are these are just studies to give you a sense to give
you a level of comfort and and that's the most extreme
of the extreme. (item:4:Can You Explain the OCN) Can you explained the O. C. N. But still
in place versus what went out this past weekend versus
if you are an emergency situation, what do people at
home experiences? It alerts on their phones, alerts
on tv what I mean? How do they know? How do we
differentiate between proactive and actual emergency
So the way people at home will learn is really through
each of you. So we're communicating with the media
to try to make sure that you know that if we move
from a current normal status into an alert status that
you should or an advisory, I should say. That's the
first level that you should get information on that
advisory and what that means. The O. C. N. Is really
just within the industry. It's an operational condition
notice it's just for us to communicate to transmission
and generation companies to tell them something they
probably already know but in this case it was, it's
getting really hot prepare for the heat importantly
Uh, your, your point about a true emergency condition
is in addition to an entirely different set of circumstances
in which in addition to communicating with you all
in the media, the PUC and ERCOT would utilize uh,
Tatum's communication system with local mayors counties
and also leverage the text dot and DPS messaging system
across the state. That's a function of new legislation
from last session to ensure that if we do get in a
truly dire emergency situation, there are multiple
points of contact with all Texans uh, from state leadership
down to local and city leadership. Uh, so if we do
get in that situation it will be a much, much more
robust form of communication. Sure. (item:4:Bloomberg News-Is The State Downplaying What We Are Experiencing) There's a couple
of reporters to do the technical issues on their own
I guess Green Mallic with Bloomberg News asks, given the
record he conditions in May and texas and the grout
the extreme demand scenario more of a possibility than
the top line SARA view I've heard from power experts
who say that the report is downplaying the reality
of what the state is experience.
I think those those predictions are based on data from
ERCOT. Certainly I can't forecast the weather during
the summer. I can't do that several months in advance
Uh, there's every indication that we're facing will
be facing a very hot summer. So that could mean that
we're up that scale. But we provided each of you through
the SARA information of what each of those potential
Load scenarios might be. There's a high case for high
forecasted Load there's an extreme case for extreme
forecasted Load So you have the information you need
and do, I think it's going to be a hot summer? I
do think it's gonna be a hot summer. Sure facing that
way. Could I be surprised by some rain storms that
come in this weekend and cool things down? I certainly
could be and would be gladly surprised by that. Most
importantly we need to be prepared for every weather
scenario hot cold and in between and that's what we're
ready for. (item:4:Mitchell Ferman-Why Did They Call For Conservation At 5PM) Mitchell ferman with the texas tribune asks
why did why did they decide to call for conservation
on Friday at 5PM. Was it because Governor Abbott made the
decision late afternoon on friday As we've discussed
the decision was made as a result of the cascading
sequence events. The most the final generator trip
was around four pm. Yes sir. So I believe we've answered
that question mitch and I'm sorry that you didn't get
that answer earlier but we have answered it, it had
to do with the sequence of events that occurred on
friday looking forward not knowing whether those units
would be able to make it back to the system over the
weekend. We called for conservation on saturday and
sunday. But fortunately those units did return.
Good question. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you.