For each of the next six years, ERCOT shall develop models for annual planning purposes that contain, as much as practicable, information consistent with the Network Operations Model…. ERCOT shall develop models for Congestion Revenue Right (CRR) Auctions … consistent with the Network Operations Model.
…In these Protocols, unless the context clearly otherwise requires:
(a) The singular includes the plural and vice versa; (b) The present tense includes the future tense, and the future tense includes the present tense; (c) Words importing any gender include the other gender; (d) The words “including,” “includes,” and “include” are deemed to be followed by the words “without limitation;” (e) The word “shall” denotes a duty; (f) The word “will” denotes a duty, unless the context denotes otherwise; (g) The word “must” denotes a condition precedent or subsequent; (h) The word “may” denotes a privilege or discretionary power; (i) The phrase “may not” denotes a prohibition….
“Arranging deck chairs on the Titanic if no capacity market.” (Joe Pokalsky, here)
“I have stated earlier that the ERCOT market’s reliance on scarcity pricing did not foresee an environment with high penetration of zero-marginal cost resources. Back in 2005 I generically simulated an energy-only market to demonstrate how scarcity pricing would work. I never anticipated the mass introduction of renewables at that time.” ( – Robert Borlick, below)
“(oops!) There is now a need to revise the scarcity pricing framework in the light of recent events, and to reflect ever-changing market conditions.” (Lynne Kiesling, June 30, 2021)
There is a Texas-sized rethink going on with the PUCT/ERCOT model for electricity. The experts/planners presiding over the Great Texas Blackout of February 2021 are in the redesign mode, with some breaking away to advocate a major new pricing system.…
“We’ll be setting up a mitigation program and new funds will be made available above and beyond our existing air quality funding that will mitigate those impacts.” (Liane Randolph, chair. California Air Resources Board, below)
“This huge list shows that if you mess up a grid, you have to try everything to hope to save the situation temporarily. In the proclamation: Air pollution rules–suspended. Ships in harbor—don’t connect to shore power, use your engines. Big industrial users—we’ll pay you $2/kWh not to consume energy. And yet, keeping a nuclear plant operating is not on the list.” (Meredith Angwin, August 2, 2021)
One intervention leads to another and yet another …. The ‘law of increasing intervention,’ as UK energy expert Colin Robinson coined it, is alive and well in the Golden State.…