TYLER, Texas (KETK) – The Electric Reliability Council of Texas has announced that they are canceling their program to buy more power ahead of the winter citing a “limited response from the market.”

The organization is tasked with managing Texas’ independent energy grid. ERCOT had asked the energy market to present them proposals to buy extra energy for this winter on Oct. 2.

They’ve now said that they only got proposals for “a small 11.1 MW of potentially eligible capacity,” falling short of their target of 3,000 MW, according to a press release.

The program was called a Request for Proposal (RFP). The RFP sought to alleviate a projected 20% risk of Energy Emergency Alert conditions this winter.

“One of the important outcomes of this RFP process was learning what the market response would be to this type of capacity request,” said ERCOT president and CEO Pablo Vegas. “We’ll take these lessons and continue to work with the PUCT and the market to evaluate other types of demand response products that could contribute meaningfully to electric reliability in the future. In the interim, ERCOT will continue to advance its winter preparedness through the many reliability programs and tools we have available.”

Luckily, ERCOT said that they are not projecting to have emergency grid conditions this winter so they expect to be able to meet Texas’ energy demand.

ERCOT also said that they’ve taken many other measures to try and protect Texas’ energy grid.

According to ERCOT, the following measures have been taken since the winter of 2021:

  • Weatherization and inspections
    • ERCOT has enhanced their inspection requirements with regards to weatherization
  • Firm Fuel Supply Service (FFSS) Phase 2
    • Phase 2 expands an additional source of fuel created for generators in phase 1.
  • Scheduled Maintenance Period
    • ERCOT has scheduled maintenance for generators and transmission operators to prepare for this winter.
  • Forecasting Improvements
    • ERCOT has got more forecasts for winter and has developed models tuned to predict extreme cold weather.
  • ERCOT Contingency Reserve Service (ECRS)
    • Resources that can start within 10 minutes of a rapid change in energy supply and demand.
  • Fast Frequency Response Service
    • “This addition to our Ancillary Services takes advantage of the capability of faster-responding Resources to respond to events,” ERCOT said.
  • Improved, Transparent Communications
  • Critical Supply Chain and Critical Infrastructure Map
    • ERCOT made a map to show all the critical parts of the Texas grid.
  • Improved Inter-Agency Communications
    • ERCOT is improving communications with the Texas Department of Emergency Management and Texas Energy Reliability Council.

To learn more, visit ERCOT online.