NPRR793  Clarifications to RMR RUC Commitment and Other RMR Cleanups

The purpose of this Nodal Protocol Revision Request (NPRR) is to: Introduce a process change that ensures Reliability Must-Run (RMR) Resources are not accidentally Reliability Unit Commitment (RUC) committed before other units; Bring RMR Settlement language in line with Board-approved NPRR442, Energy Offer Curve Requirement for Generation Resources Providing Reliability Must-Run Service; Clarify the operational practice that ERCOT will submit Energy Offer Curves for RMR Resources as opposed to Output Schedules; Clarify activities during the contracting and reimbursement process; Require RMR Unit owners to provide monthly updated budget information during the term of the RMR Agreement; Align with the shortened settlements timeline by requiring that actual cost and fuel data be submitted by the 16th day of the month following a given month to be timely for final; Make minor corrections to two RMR Settlement formulas so that they comport with the original intent and the current implementation; and Make other non-substantive revisions to clarify Protocol language for RMR Resources. The current process for committing an RMR Resource lacks clarity and could allow the RUC engine to commit an RMR Resource before other Resources. This would require monitoring by operations personnel to detect and correct. This NPRR would require the Qualified Scheduling Entity (QSE) to show a Resource Status of EMR which makes the Resource unavailable to the RUC engine and requires an operator to manually commit the Resource. NPRR442 removed the ability for RMR Resources to be Day-Ahead Market (DAM) committed, but did not remove the related Settlement language. This NPRR removes Settlement language related to DAM-committed RMR Units. This NPRR also cleans up existing RMR formulas by correcting brackets in paragraph (1) of Section 6.6.6.2, and adding a summation symbol to paragraph (2) of Section 6.6.6.3 to show the roll-up of 15-minute data to hourly data. These corrections match the current system implementation so no changes to ERCOT systems will be needed for these clarifications. Further revisions are included in this NPRR to provide additional clarity to the RMR contracting and reimbursement processes: Where the RMR Unit owner is required to provide alternatives for Outage Maintenance Costs and Non-Outage Maintenance Costs, an affirmation by the RMR Unit owner would be submitted in instances where no reasonable alternatives are available; Reported actual Eligible Costs must be categorized consistently with budgeted Eligible Costs to ensure accurate Eligible Cost true-up; and the “Hourly Rolling Equivalent Availability Factor” of the RMR Unit, which is used to calculate the Incentive Factor payment, is specified to be based only on hours in which the RMR Unit is intended to be available under the RMR Agreement to better align with instances in which availability is required for non-contiguous time periods.