#ADER Expansion in 2024: Public Discussion Workshop Proposals in Project No. 53911 to Unlock More Dispatachable MWs
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Over the past several weeks, I have been collecting information from stakeholders across all market segments and the investor communtiy interested in understanding how to make the #grid #dispatachable #ADER #VPP pilot work for more participants in ERCOT . There has been some news coverage too, but we cannot expect one-page media articles to tell the full story. Last week, I filed a summary of all barriers and grey areas around which market participants have asked for organized discussion and problem-solving recommendation work from the #ADER Task Force of the Public Utility Commission of Texas: https://interchange.puc.texas.gov/Documents/53911_77_1413745.PDF
Such informational filings invite the public to submit comments (i) providing more information about the identified barriers, and (ii) indicating interest in presenting at #ADERTaskForce Workshops to educate the public and the task force membership.
From my review of the feedback, key themes have emerged which focus on solving for barriers to simply increase ADER-eligible device volumes. I have already heard in public workshops of the ADER Task Force over the past year that aggregations are cost effective when they benefit from economies of scale in device population count: the costs of bringing the aggregation to market are large and fixed, thus benefits should be commensurate with this cost and are enabled by larger aggregation sizes. Given the desire to get to 80 MWs (the initial pilot size goal) and the social mission of ensuring more communities have the means to keep the lights on with ADER devices in their homes, the two goals need to better align in any project seeking to expand distributed reliability, while also addressing the needs of the distribution system to accommodate the resulting growth.
Here's a summary of some interesting new barriers identified to date by participants in the nonprofit, public research, retail energy provider, market operator, and #ADER device installer entities:
1. Installation technical rules need improvement to allow larger backup batteries which support longer residential power outages.
2. DER permitting processes should be reformed to help customers and installers better manage costs and timelines (and electronic-only permitting tools are needed).
3. Landlord-tenant retail billing and metering rules should be clearly laid out so more tenants can enjoy home backup retail rate plans from retail energy providers interested in aggregating a master meter or Iandlord-designated meter account into an ADER (single and multifamily).
4. ERCOT and ADER providers could work together to create new ancillary service products in this pilot, which do not burden small device owners/operators with the same rigor of telemetry and other performance metrics which only make sense for large singlesite generators. This could look like prior efforts from ERCOT to enable an RFI for 1 demand response from small aggregations - however, provide such aggregations incentives through the market as an ADER.
5. ERCOT could introduce a formal roadmap in the ADER pilot project to enable frequency response grid services; battery customers can provide and be paid for this service without significantly cycling their batteries, and it is a more affordable grid service for aggregators to provide to ERCOT without stringent telemetry and device interoperability barriers.
The ADER Task Force Project is open for public comment and is not directly associated with any rulemaking or current policy action. When new workshops are requested by any member of the public, the requests are evaluated by the #ADERTaskForce for consideration and the workshops are scheduled by the Task Force with public remote participation options. Parties interested in hearing about these issues, commenting through presentations as subject matter experts, providing detailed written comments to educate the public, are always welcome to participate and file in the proceeding. Prior Workshops are a gold mine of information, check out a few in the list below and please comment and particiapte in future activities scheduled by the #ADERTaskForce!
More Recent Workshop and Presentations on Successes, Barriers, Next Steps:
Proposal from Tesla for Frequency Response from ADER Batteries Q1 2024: https://interchange.puc.texas.gov/Documents/53911_76_1387116.PDF
ERCOT's Q1 2024 ADER Update: https://interchange.puc.texas.gov/Documents/53911_74_1386647.PDF
November 2023 Current Status and Challenges for ADER: https://interchange.puc.texas.gov/Documents/53911_62_1345740.PDF
Milestones and Successes of ADER - 1 Year Report from Tesla: https://interchange.puc.texas.gov/Documents/53911_52_1311452.PDF
Older Workshops Prior to First Governing Document Forming ADER Pilot:
VPP Experiences: https://interchange.puc.texas.gov/search/documents/?controlNumber=53911&itemNumber=11
Review of TX Laws and ERCOT Nodal Protocols: https://interchange.puc.texas.gov/search/documents/?controlNumber=53911&itemNumber=12
Customer Communications: https://interchange.puc.texas.gov/search/documents/?controlNumber=53911&itemNumber=36
TX Utility (DSP) Role in ADER Registration: https://interchange.puc.texas.gov/search/documents/?controlNumber=53911&itemNumber=40
ERCOT Review of Wholeslae Markets, Ancillary Services, Settlements: https://interchange.puc.texas.gov/search/documents/?controlNumber=53911&itemNumber=43