Some companies participate in the Texas demand response program but it has never been very attractive monetarily. Until this February the promise was that you could earn money but never be called upon to meet your commitment. The cold weather in February awakened many participants to what they had committed to and the thought if the payments were worth the 12 or more hours they were called to curtail their usage.
ERCOT looks to be changing the program. Platts reports this today:
ERCOT proposed demand-response rule changes draw mixed reviews
Houston (Platts)–22Nov2011/453 pm EST/2153 GMT
An Electric Reliability Council of Texas proposal to loosen restrictions on its emergency interruptible load service program has drawn conflicting reactions from stakeholders.
ERCOT on Monday afternoon issued a notice of draft amendments to the Public Utility Commission of Texas substantive rule regarding EILS. The proposed changes include:
–allowing participation by distributed generation;
–changing the name to “emergency response service;”
–eliminating the 1,000 MW capacity procurement ceiling per contract period;
–eliminating a 90-day-notice requirement for creating new contract periods;
–eliminating the current requirement for three specific contract periods and allowing ERCOT to set contract periods as needed; … and more