ERCOT will host the first meeting of the Gas-Electric Working Group (GEWG) on February 15, 2019 at 9:30 a.m. at ERCOT’s Austin office.
The purpose of GEWG is to facilitate coordination on reliability matters between the natural gas and electric industries. ERCOT and the Public Utility Commission of Texas (PUCT) encourage the following entities to attend this meeting:
• Entities who operate gas-fired generation facilities
• Entities who operate gas pipelines that directly or indirectly serve these generation facilities
• TDSPs who serve these gas pipelines
ERCOT and the PUCT encourage gas generation operators to provide this meeting notice to the pipeline operators serving their facilities and request that they attend the meeting. A WebEx will be available for those who cannot attend in person.
Among other things, the meeting will include a discussion on draft coordination guidelines being developed by certain pipeline and gas-fired generation operators and Transmission and/or Distribution Services Providers (TDSPs). The PUCT requested this discussion in anticipation of low reserve margins this summer. The guidelines are intended to facilitate direct communications between generation operators and pipeline operators.
ERCOT also expects to discuss how best to identify key electric-consuming facilities that are necessary to serve generation facilities (e.g. electric gas-compressors), with the aim of incorporating them into the TDSPs’ load curtailment plans so that they can be excluded from involuntary load shed.