Senate Bill 6 (PURA § 39.170) requires ERCOT to develop a demand management service for large loads of 75 MW or more, deployable in emergency conditions with at least 24 hours' notice. PUCT staff's request for comments put two architectures on the table — an as-needed procurement ahead of anticipated emergencies, and a seasonal procurement resembling the existing Emergency Response Service.
What we filed
The coalition supported the new service and urged that it be designed for broad, real participation:
- Deploy in any grid emergency, not only extreme weather — "most grid emergencies are driven by multiple factors, including weather conditions."
- No separate 24-hour-ramp qualification process — the notice period is a program design element; participation decisions belong to each customer.
- 4CP response must not disqualify a load. 4CP is a transmission rate design, not an emergency program — "ERCOT needs more, not less, response to transmission CPs."
- Use a bright-line participation test for the statutory price-responsiveness exclusion: exclude loads already committed to ERS, ancillary services, or comparable programs in the same period, rather than intrusive price-responsiveness screens — because at some price and duration, nearly any large load may find it economically necessary to curtail.
- Fund the service with dedicated new money so it does not cannibalize the existing ERS budget industrial participants rely on.
Why it matters
A statutory, paid, day-ahead-notice curtailment product is a natural fit for large industrial operations that have provided exactly this kind of flexibility to ERCOT for decades. The design question is whether the exclusion rules keep proven industrial flexibility in the program — staff is expected to translate the comment record into a draft rule and ERCOT protocol changes.
Facing a related regulatory or commercial question? Harper Advisory works with a focused number of large industrial energy users across ERCOT, CAISO, PJM, and other US markets.
Contact UsThis summary is drawn from documents on the public record and is provided for general information. It is not legal advice, and it does not disclose any confidential client matter.