NOTICE DATE: April 8, 2021

NOTICE TYPE: M-B040821-01 Operations

SHORT DESCRIPTION: Request for Submission of Questions relating to April 6 Preliminary Report on Outage Causes and Request for Authorization to Disclose Certain Resource-Specific Outage Cause Information

INTENDED AUDIENCE:  All Market Participants and all ERCOT Qualified Scheduling Entities representing Resource Entities with Generation Resources or Energy Storage Resources

DAYS AFFECTED: April 8, 2021

LONG DESCRIPTION: On April 6, 2021, ERCOT filed with the Public Utility Commission of Texas a preliminary report on the causes of outages and derates during the February 2021 winter storm event.  ERCOT understands Market Participants have many questions about this report.  To ensure these questions can be considered and addressed as efficiently as possible, ERCOT invites Market Participants to send all questions regarding the report to ERCOT at preliminary_report_questions@ercot.com.  ERCOT requests that any questions be submitted by 5:00 p.m. CDT on Thursday, April 15, 2021.  ERCOT will endeavor to promptly respond to these questions and will post its response on the February 2021 Extreme Weather Event page on its website.  ERCOT will issue a Market Notice when the response is posted.

Some Market Participants have expressed concerns that ERCOT’s preliminary report may not accurately reflect the total amount of capacity affected by one or more outage causes based on the descriptions provided in the responses to ERCOT’s February 24, 2021 requests for information (RFI).  To address these concerns, ERCOT would need to publicly disclose the outage cause information provided in each Qualified Scheduling Entity’s (QSE) RFI response.  However, this information was submitted in a form that was designated as confidential and therefore cannot be disclosed without permission of each submitting QSE.  In order to provide greater transparency of the information ERCOT relied on to assign each outage to one of the seven cause categories in the report, ERCOT requests that each QSE that represents one or more Generation Resources or Energy Storage Resources (ESRs) provide written authorization for ERCOT to publicly disclose certain information in its RFI response relating to outage causes.  Specifically, ERCOT requests that each QSE authorize ERCOT to publicly disclose all information provided by the QSE in response to questions 1, 2.a., 2.b., 3, 4(a)a., and 5.a. in the RFI.  ERCOT is not requesting authorization from any QSE that only represents Settlement Only Generators.  Authorization must be submitted by no later than 5:00 p.m. CDT on Thursday, April 15, 2021, to be effective. 

ERCOT requests that authorization be provided by the QSE’s Authorized Representative or Backup Authorized Representative, or by an officer of the QSE or any other person that the QSE has informed ERCOT has binding authority.  Approval should be communicated via email to MPRegistration@ercot.com with the subject line “Authorization for Disclosure of RFI Outage Cause Information.”  For ease of administration, ERCOT requests that each respondent on behalf of a QSE provide authorization for all Generation Resources and ESRs at each generation site (i.e., substation) under the QSE’s control, as follows:

I authorize ERCOT to publicly disclose all information provided in response to questions 1, 2.a., 2.b., 3, 4(a)a.,  and 5.a. in ERCOT’s February 24, 2021 Request for Information, for the following Resource(s) represented by the below-designated QSE(s):

QSE name:

Resource site code or unit code:

A respondent may submit an authorization for multiple QSEs in a single email provided that the respondent is authorized to submit on behalf of each QSE and that the submission separately identifies each of the Resource site codes or unit codes that correspond to each QSE. 

ERCOT will not consider the authorization to be valid if the QSE does not use the above language verbatim, including the authorization to disclose information provided by the QSE in response to each of the above-identified RFI questions.  QSEs that do not provide the requested authorization for ERCOT to publicly disclose their RFI information will be identified in a list posted to ERCOT’s website.  Once ERCOT has received the authorizations, ERCOT will assemble the Resource-specific outage cause information that can be disclosed.  ERCOT expects this could take several weeks.  ERCOT will issue a Market Notice when the outage cause information has been posted.   

ERCOT will provide updated information on the causes of generator outages as it receives and reviews additional information.  ERCOT will continue to coordinate with Resource owners to ensure ERCOT has accurately characterized the causes for the outages.

CONTACT: If you have any questions, please contact your ERCOT Account Manager. You may also call the general ERCOT Client Services phone number at (512) 248-3900 or contact ERCOT Client Services via email at ClientServices@ercot.com.

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