Tesla Requests Rule Change in Texas to Bring Households with Solar & Batteries into the State's Energy Market

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Tesla has filed a rule change for grid operators in Texas to bring households with solar panels and batteries into the state's energy market. Broad public participation should help the power operator stabilize the state's power grid.

After Tesla chose Texas as its home, the manufacturer decided to positively impact the development of the entire region. The winter storm that raged in February 2021, in which several hundred Texans lost their lives, once again showed the instability and unreliability of Texas energy, this time at a very high price. Tesla has lobbied to change several energy market rules to make more efficient use of its energy products on the state's electrical grid. The manufacturer has mainly focused on deploying its utility power solution, the Megapack, but now it wants to help Texans work together to solve the problem. Tesla wants solar and Powerwall residential customers to participate more effectively in the Texas energy market.

Tesla has filed a rule change request with the Electric Reliability Council of Texas (ERCOT), which manages the state electric grid. The proposed changes will allow electric utilities to work with customers who have solar panels and batteries in their homes. This means that such households can bid on the extra capacity.

Tesla is asking the Technical Advisory Committee (TAC) for quick consideration of the manufacturer's filing on the matter so it can launch a retail offering related to this functionality this year. The rapid implementation of the project will allow ERCOT to purchase and send additional megawatts.

“This OBDRR will enable Retail Electric Providers (REPs) with Customers with behind-the-meter controllable generation, energy storage or other technologies to provide bids to buy in Security-Constrained Economic Dispatch (SCED) and participate in Non-Spinning Reserve (Non-Spin). This is already allowed under the policies established by ERCOT; however, minor clarifications are required to allow the first of these aggregations to register with ERCOT this year.

Tesla asks for a quick consideration by the Technical Advisory Committee (TAC) on this document so that it can launch a retail offer associated with this functionality this year, and thus enable additional megawatts to be procured and dispatched by ERCOT. To that end, Tesla respectfully requests that minimal comments should be added to this document; instead, Tesla commits to working with ERCOT and interested stakeholders to bring a second OBDRR for this OBD later this summer that will allow new functionality, such as providing Responsive Reserve (RRS) This forthcoming OBDRR will offer an appropriate opportunity to modernize this document.

Upon passage, aggregations of behind-the-meter distributed assets will be enabled and help to implement one of the Phase One items from the market design blueprint endorsed by the Public Utility Commission of Texas (PUCT). Tesla will be prepared to answer any questions at the upcoming TAC meeting to expedite the approval of this revision request.”

© 2022, Eva Fox | Tesmanian. All rights reserved.

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