Yesterday ERCOT reached a new peak demand of 64,872 MW for the month of July. Prices spiked to $3000 for one interval around 4:00 when a large coal plant in ERCOT tripped off-line suddenly. This caused a frequency decay triggering LaaR dispatches by about half of the LaaR resources in the market. Things were quickly stabilized by ERCOT and resources returned to normal. The unit that tripped is now only partially back online so a decent chunk of generation may be missing from the stack today.
ERCOT is forecasting a peak load of 65,788 MW while other independent forecasting services are predicting demand to be as high as 66,145 MW today. With this being the last day of the month, we are expecting the 4CP for July to be set somewhere between 4:00 – 5:00 PM today. In order to avoid getting hit with extremely high commercial electricity rates we suggest curtailing your load and / or turning on generation during this time to lower future 4CP charges, and to potentially avoid high LMP prices if you have a retail product that allows you to benefit.
Tomorrow is the first day of August, and the first day with a new $4500 price cap. Loads will be strong and the temps will be hot. Careful watch of the LMP market is a requirement for any business with significant exposure. Avoidance of commercial electricity rate spikes is possible. To learn more feel free to call us.
