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On March 17, 2023, the Texas Court of Appeals for the Third District issued an opinion reversing two winter storm Uri orders by the Public Utility Commission of Texas (PUCT) that had raised power prices in ERCOT to $9,000/MWh. ERCOT, the Electric Reliability Council of Texas, manages the electric grid for most, but not all, of Texas and serves approximately 26 million customers.

The decision by the Court of Appeals in Luminant Energy Company LLC v. Public Utility Commission of Texas, No. 03-21-00098-CV, has the potential to affect certain transactions made under the PUCT’s orders. The Court of Appeals not only reversed the PUCT’s orders but remanded them for further proceedings. Should the Court of Appeals’ opinion be upheld, it is unclear how the PUCT will resolve the pricing issues, but it would likely need to hold proceedings to address them. The opinion also raised questions about the authority of the PUCT to issue price caps for Texas’ energy market. …

Continue Reading PUCT Winter Storm Uri Orders Reversed and Remanded by Texas Court of Appeals

On March 25, 2022, the Electric Reliability Council of Texas (ERCOT) issued a notice regarding a new interim large load interconnection process that is effective immediately. The interim process applies to load interconnection requests — usually large, flexible loads with accelerated timelines, such as crypto-miners — that have not been modeled and studied in a completed ERCOT planning assessment (e.g., regional transmission plan, full interconnection study or regional planning group review). The new interim large load interconnection process applies to:

  • new loads not co-located with a resource with total demand within the next two years of 75 MW or greater;
  • existing loads not co-located with a resource increasing total demand by 75 MW or greater within the next two years;
  • new loads co-located with a resource with total demand within the next two years of 20 MW or greater; or
  • existing loads co-located with a resource increasing total demand by 20 MW or greater within the next two years.

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Continue Reading Crypto-Miners, Large Loads Subject to New Interim Interconnection Process in ERCOT