ERCOT has a 2023 summer to remember as price spikes were the norm with many getting close to the market cap threshold. Fast forward to the Spring 2024 and the market construct felt like a hot summer month when you take into account load growth, renewable volume and outages.
Figure 1 | ERCOT Net Load - Hourly
The graph above displays two types of netting load with the orange line tied to power demand minus wind generation while the blue line incorporates solar generation as an additive resource. This is the profile that is causing April to look more like July/August when it comes to the marginal cost of energy needed to balance the grid........