A class of emerging companies, technologies and services are coming to Texas to help utility customers alter or control their consumption in response to price signals or market conditions.  SPEER has proposed an adaptation of current rule that would allow energy efficiency, demand response, and on-site generation like solar to be bid into energy markets, helping customers control their energy costs.

Although Texas has a highly competitive electricity market, there is currently no mechanism for third party DR providers, ESCOs, or other service providers with small commercial or aggregated residential demand to bid directly into the real-time market, the way that retail electric providers (REPs) can. Market stakeholders are collaborating to develop a solution for third-party load participation in ERCOT’s real-time energy market, also known as security constrained economic dispatch, or SCED.

SPEER developed a simplified approach which reduces costs and complexity of previous concepts, as can be seen in our “Loads in SCED Comparison Chart” which compares various versions of this proposed approach. SPEER’s whitepaper on this subject “A Simplified Approach for Third-Party Management of Loads in the Real-Time Market” explains the details of this approach, which we drafted to enhance the discussion among stakeholders. This approach in a robust competitive market, would enable load to contribute to wholesale price formation, support grid reliability and enhance consumer value of the advanced metering infrastructure in Texas. SPEER submitted comments on this issue in PUCT Project No. 41061 in January 2018, and continues working with stakeholders to gain market support for this approach.