Texas Demand Response

Enel X has a proven track record of helping hundreds of organizations throughout Texas earn money, save on energy costs, and mitigate carbon emissions with demand response (DR). How does it work? When the Electric Reliability Council of Texas (ERCOT), the region’s electric grid operator, determines that it needs more supply to meet demand, it dispatches Enel X’s demand response network, which is made up of local organizations that have agreed to reduce energy during times of high demand. Our deep well of market expertise provides the tools and guidance today’s businesses need to maximize their DR earning potential. With Enel X, participating in demand response has never been easier.

Emergency Demand Response Overview

The Emergency Response Service (ERS) is a demand response program designed to help ERCOT mitigate rolling blackouts. When a grid emergency occurs—typically due to high demand, extreme weather, or transmission issues—ERCOT dispatches ERS customers to reduce energy use within 10 or 30 minutes.

Load Resources Overview

Load Resources (LR) are loads capable of delivering capacity to an ancillary program, such as Responsive Reserve Service (RRS), so ERCOT has sufficient capacity when sudden, short-term imbalances on the grid occur. LR participants specify the hours they are able to participate by bidding into ERCOT’s day-ahead energy market. When a grid imbalance occurs, LR participants reduce energy consumption automatically via an on-site Under Frequency Relay, installed and maintained by Enel X.

What is demand response?

Demand response programs provide a no-risk, no-cost opportunity for commercial, institutional, and industrial organizations to earn money while helping maintain reliable electricity throughout Texas. Program participants receive recurring capacity payments for agreeing to curtail electricity consumption in response to abnormally high electricity demand or electricity price spikes.

How does my business benefit?

Maximize payments to your bottom line

Enel X manages your participation from start to finish, ensuring you earn the highest possible financial reward, even if there are no dispatches. Since 2003, our customers have earned more than $1B in payments.

Support your community

Your participation helps maintain reliable electricity throughout Texas and provides a clean, cost-effective alternative to building new power plants in the community.

How do I participate?

Enel X makes participation easy. We take care of the complex details so you can stay focused on running your business.

1. Our expert team will work with you to identify your energy reduction potential and create a strategy that delivers maximum value with minimum impact on your operations. We outline these measures in a detailed Energy Reduction Plan.
2. We install necessary metering devices at your facility to establish communication with our Network Operations Center (NOC), so we can monitor your energy consumption levels in real time.
3. Enel X simulates a DR dispatch to ensure that you are comfortable with your Energy Reduction Plan. At any time during a dispatch, you can log into apps.enelx.com to view your performance in real-time.
4. Your site is then enrolled and ready to respond if and when a dispatch begins. Throughout the process, we fully manage enrollment, measurement, verification, and payments on your behalf.

What can I expect during a dispatch?

Notification

When ERCOT anticipates the need for support, it dispatches the Enel X network into action. Enel X will notify you via email, phone, or SMS informing you when the dispatch will begin.

Response

At the start of the dispatch, your facility will reduce its electricity usage according to your pre-determined Energy Reduction Plan—either manually, or automatically through the NOC.

Support

Before, during, and after a dispatch, the NOC remains in communication with your facility. Our staff is available 24x7x365, supporting you to ensure that you achieve the highest possible levels of performance and payments.

What types of reductions can I make?

Enel X has extensive experience creating reduction strategies that work within the operational limitations of a wide variety of facilities, including cold storage, manufacturers, food processors, universities, malls, office buildings and more. Common reduction examples include:

Reduce non-essential lighting
Modify manufacturing processes
Adjust HVAC equipment
Dial back pumps
Change settings in industrial freezers

Our customers find that many energy-intensive processes can simply be shifted by a few hours to facilitate dispatch participation. Ask us about our experience working with customers like you.

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What is the Responsive Reserve Service (RRS) program?

The Electric Reliability Council of Texas (ERCOT) introduced the Responsive Reserve Service (RRS) program to help maintain the security and reliability of the electrical grid. RRS alleviates the potential for blackouts by delivering the real-time capacity resources ERCOT needs to restore, or maintain, the grid when system reliability and reserve margins are at risk.

Businesses that are qualified to provide capacity as an ancillary service in the ERCOT market are known as Load Resources (LR). In return, they can earn considerable payments for their flexibility while protecting equipment at their site from decaying grid frequencies. Moreover, LRs earn payments regardless of whether their load is dispatched, as long as their load is available for the full duration of their commitment.

Who can participate?

Businesses with stable and predictable load profiles that can safely curtail automatically and instantaneously make great LR candidates for RRS. To maximize earnings, LRs must have a predictable load pattern that Enel X can reliably estimate one day in advance.

Due to the short dispatch notification window, LRs must have real-time telemetry installed on site to send load data, breaker status, and under frequency relay (UFR) status to ERCOT in real-time.

How does my business benefit?

Maximize payments to your bottom line:

Enel X will work with you to establish your earnings potential based on your specific participation plan including the load and the total hours you commit. Prices vary by hour and month, but for each of the past five years, the hourly RRS clearing price has exceeded $85,000/MW-year for 24x7 participation.

Get paid to protect valuable equipment:

Decaying frequencies can have detrimental effects to the equipment at your site. The RRS program provides frequency protection to the ERCOT grid and will also prevent costly damage to your processes and equipment resulting from a power trip. In essence, you are paid to protect your operations.

How do I participate?

Enel X makes participation easy. We take care of the complex details so you can stay focused on running your business.

To enable your participation in the RRS program:

1. We will register your facility as a Load Resource with ERCOT and install both an energy monitoring device and a UFR at your site.

2. Our team of experts will work with you to identify curtailable load and build a custom bidding strategy that maximizes your earnings without jeopardizing your operations.

Your RRS bidding strategy will have two components:

1. Day-ahead: Enel X will develop proposed hourly offers (load and price) for your site to bid into the day-ahead market, giving you the opportunity to confirm or update before any action is taken.

Notify Enel X of any operational load changes by 9 am CPT for the day-ahead schedule.

Enel X will bid your offers into the day-ahead market for RRS at 10:00 a.m. CPT.

ERCOT publishes clearing results (your final commitment) by 1:30 p.m. CPT. Once an LR iscommitted to the RRS market, it cannot commit to any other DR participation for that day.

2. Day-of: Ensure the load at your facility remains within 95% –150% of your offered MW value. This is critical to remain in compliance with ERCOT. Your payments are based on your load availability, regardless of a dispatch.

What triggers a dispatch?

There are two scenarios for LRs to be dispatched in the RRS program:

1. Frequency drops below 59.7 Hz. ERCOT requires one or more UFRs to be installed at LR sites so that power can be interrupted automatically and instantaneously when this condition occurs.
2. ERCOT-deployed event. Should ERCOT experience reserve shortages or another grid emergency, LRs are required to curtail grid usage within 10 minutes of the dispatch.

What happens if I cannot meet my commitment?

Customers will never pay out-of-pocket penalties for under-performance in an RRS dispatch. If you anticipate any outages in your normal schedule, notify Enel X immediately at ERCOTLRSupport.EnelXus@enel.com or +1 888 363 7662 no later than 9:00 a.m. CPT the day prior to the outage to prevent a reduction in your RRS payment.

What are the costs to participate?

Enel X pays for all metering equipment, controls, and connectivity fees associated with enrolling your site in the RRS program. We leverage our state-of-the-art Network Operations Center (NOC) to meet ERCOT’s strict telemetry, bidding, and dispatch requirements, thereby eliminating any technical costs to our customers.

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On-Demand Access to Real-Time Data

Enel X provides on-demand access to your real-time energy data—giving you the information you need to perform your best during demand response events and to better manage overall energy costs.

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