Reserves
The electricity conserved by a client is the same as the electricity generated by a power plant and has the same financial value in the energy market. If a client agrees to reduce their demand for electricity when called upon, less power will have to be generated to meet the demand. Reserves are the amount of load a client can eliminate or "curtail" when called upon to do so.Participation in reserves programs requires a company to provide a minimum of one megawatt of load reduction. Clients providing reserves have the choice of either a 10- or 30-minute response period to reduce or generate load depending upon program requirements. Reserves can be generated through the conservation of electricity usage that can be shifted to another time of day, such as charging equipment earlier or later than usual. Payments for reserves program participation can range from tens of thousands of dollars to hundreds of thousands of dollars, depending on the number of megawatts the client can curtail, the number of hours the client can participate and which program is selected.
To illustrate the power of reserve programs, on February 26, 2008, a significant amount of wind and conventional generation that was expected to be online in Texas was unavailable. At the same time, the demand for electricity was significantly higher than forecasted. As a result, ERCOT (Electric Reliability Council of Texas) invoked its EECP (Emergency Electric Curtailment Plan) Step 2 emergency procedure and called 1,150MW of reserves resources. Within 12 minutes, 1,200 MW came off the grid. This was over 100 percent of the amount that had been procured for that hour. A blackout - or rolling blackouts - was thereby avoided.
ERCOT LaaR Deployment, February 26, 2008
Source: ERCOT Nodal Load Participation Workshop, May 2008
Participation in reserves programs is completely voluntary. If a client is unable to participate for a period of time, the client simply needs to notify CPower two days prior, and the client will be removed from the market.
To learn more about CPower's reserves programs, please complete the form below.