The Electric Reliability Council of Texas has launched a new daily procured ancillary service called the ERCOT Contingency Reserve Service.
ECRS is the first daily procured ancillary service introduced to the ERCOT market in more than 20 years.
“As energy demand continues to grow in Texas, adding ECRS will support grid reliability and mitigate real-time operational issues to keep supply and demand balanced,” ERCOT said on June 12.
ECRS will complement and provide support to the four procured ancillary services ERCOT currently uses: Regulation Up, Regulation Down, Responsive Reserve Service and Non-Spin Reserve Service, the grid operator said.
Ancillary services are additional tools ERCOT uses to manage uncertainty and variability on the grid that are purchased by ERCOT in the day-ahead market to balance the next day's supply and demand of electricity on the grid and mitigate real-time operational issues.
Ancillary services can be provided by generators or consumers to increase or decrease the supply of electricity in a matter of minutes or even seconds.
