ERCOT Adds New Ancillary Service to Support Grid Reliability

(Austin, TX) – ERCOT has launched the ERCOT Contingency Reserve Service (ECRS), a new daily procured Ancillary Service. As energy demand continues to grow in Texas, adding ECRS will 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.”

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. The public can view the Ancillary Services dashboard and system frequency here. 

ECRS is the first daily procured Ancillary Service introduced to the ERCOT market in more than 20 years.

What is an Ancillary Service?
Ancillary Services are additional tools ERCOT uses to manage uncertainty and variability on the grid. Ancillary Services are purchased by ERCOT in the day-ahead market to balance the next day's supply and demand of electricity on the grid and mitigate real-time operational issues. Ancillary Services can be provided by generators or consumers to increase or decrease the supply of electricity in a matter of minutes or even seconds. A downloadable guide to ERCOT’s Ancillary Services also may be found here.  

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