ERCOT has launched a new Contingency Reserve Service, a new daily procured Ancillary Service to support grid reliability and mitigate real-time operational issues to keep supply and demand balanced.
“As summer temperatures begin to rise across Texas and with high demand forecasted, we will continue to use all operational tools available, including implementation of new programs like ECRS,” said ERCOT President and CEO Pablo Vegas. “ERCOT will also execute previous sessions’ legislative reforms, such as our weatherization inspections, and we’ll continue our reliability-first approach to operations, always prioritizing grid reliability.”
ERCOT, the electric grid operator for the state, was not widely known by most Texans until the 2021’s Winter Storm Uri, which resulted in rolling and total power outages for millions of Texans amid the coldest weather conditions in decades. Gov. Greg Abbott was quick to pin the blame for the power failures on ERCOT. During heat waves in the summers since then, ERCOT has issued conservation appeals due to tight grid conditions, causing many Texans to worry about a similar power failure, but during extreme heat instead of cold.
ECRS will complement and provide support to the four procured Ancillary Services ERCOT currently uses: Regulation Up, Regulation Down, Responsive Reserve Service and Non-Spin Reserve Service, according to an ERCOT news release. ECRS is the first daily procured Ancillary Service introduced to the ERCOT market in more than 20 years.
The public can view the Ancillary Services and system frequency dashboards here.
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