ERCOT ERS Winter Bidding Opened October 2: Texas Commercial Loads Face an October 30 Cutoff and a 24-Hour Cumulative Curtailment Obligation
ERCOT's RFP for the December 1, 2026 through March 31, 2027 ERS term needs site information from QSEs by October 30 and offers by November 9. Here is what the 24-hour cumulative winter obligation means for Texas commercial buyers.
On October 2, 2026, ERCOT issued its Request for Proposal for Emergency Response Service (ERS) covering December 1, 2026 through March 31, 2027, and the first hard deadline is October 30, 2026, when Qualified Scheduling Entities (QSEs) must send ERCOT the resource identification details for every site they plan to offer. For Texas commercial electricity buyers with load they can switch off on short notice, the winter term carries a 24-hour cumulative deployment obligation, twice the 12 hours that applies in the other three contract terms, so enrolling is an operations decision as much as a revenue one.
What Happened
ERCOT published Market Notice M-A100226-01 at 11:25 a.m. on October 2, 2026, opening procurement of four ERS products for the winter Standard Contract Term: Non-Weather-Sensitive ERS-30, Weather-Sensitive ERS-30, Non-Weather-Sensitive ERS-10 and Weather-Sensitive ERS-10. In the notice's own words, "ERS Resource Identification (ERID) information is due to ERCOT no later than October 30, 2026." Competitive and self-provision offers are due November 9, and ERCOT will tell QSEs which offers won no later than November 20.
The schedule closely tracks last winter's. ERCOT issued the 2025-26 winter RFP on the same calendar day, October 2, 2025, under notice M-B100225-01, and each later deadline this year lands one calendar day earlier than it did then.
| Milestone | 2025-26 winter term | 2026-27 winter term |
|---|---|---|
| RFP market notice issued | October 2, 2025 | October 2, 2026 |
| ERID information due to ERCOT | October 31, 2025 | October 30, 2026 |
| Competitive and self-provision offers due | November 10, 2025 | November 9, 2026 |
| ERCOT notifies QSEs of awards | November 21, 2025 | November 20, 2026 |
| Standard Contract Term begins | December 1, 2025 | December 1, 2026 |
| Standard Contract Term ends | March 31, 2026 | March 31, 2027 |
Source: ERCOT market notices M-B100225-01 and M-A100226-01.
The RFP, dated October 2, 2026, and the ERS Technical Requirements and Scope of Work, dated September 18, 2026, are posted on ERCOT's program page. Read the primary sources: the ERCOT market notice, the ERS program page and the PUCT rule that authorizes the program, 16 TAC 25.507.
What Is ERCOT ERS, and Who Can Take Part?
ERCOT Emergency Response Service is a reliability program that pays QSEs to line up commercial, industrial and residential participants who will cut consumption, or start on-site generation, within 10 minutes (ERS-10) or 30 minutes (ERS-30) of an ERCOT instruction. It exists to help prevent or relieve an actual or anticipated Energy Emergency Alert (EEA), the stage of grid stress that comes before rotating outages.
A business never offers ERS to ERCOT on its own. Under 16 TAC 25.507, every ERS Resource must be represented by a QSE, and offers reach ERCOT only through that QSE. Three rules shape who can take part:
- Size. ERCOT's protocols set a 0.1 MW minimum offer, or 0.5 MW for a load measured against the weather-sensitive baseline. A QSE may aggregate several sites to reach the minimum, and the aggregation counts as a single ERS Resource.
- Product. The weather-sensitive versions are built for loads whose usage moves with the weather and are measured against a weather-sensitive baseline. The non-weather-sensitive versions use ERCOT's other baseline methods.
- Payment path. ERCOT pays the QSE on an as-bid basis, a market clearing price or another mechanism it chooses, adjusted for each resource's availability and its performance in any deployment. What reaches the site depends on the site's own agreement with its QSE.
Why Is the Winter ERS Term Different?
The December through March term asks for twice the stamina of any other term. ERCOT's Nodal Protocols, as revised by NPRR1142 (effective August 26, 2022), obligate ERS Resources to 24 hours of cumulative deployment time in an ERS Contract Period during the December through March term, and to 12 hours in the April through May, June through September and October through November terms.
Two details in the PUCT rule make that number firmer than it looks. Section 25.507(d)(6) says a dispatched ERS Resource "must remain deployed until recalled by ERCOT." Section 25.507(d)(8) limits deployment to 24 cumulative hours in a contract period, but if an instruction pushes the running total past the contracted hours, each resource "must remain deployed until permitted by ERCOT procedures or by ERCOT instructions to return from deployment." Once a site's obligation is used up, ERCOT may renew it, but only with the consent of the resource and its QSE.
ERS also does not have to wait for a declared emergency. NPRR1106, effective December 17, 2021, lets ERCOT deploy ERS before an EEA when reserves fall below a set level and are not expected to recover after Non-Spinning Reserve is deployed.
The odds of a call this winter look low on paper. ERCOT's December 2026 Monthly Outlook for Resource Adequacy puts the month's highest EEA probability at 2.95% in the 7 to 8 a.m. hour, well under its 10% elevated-risk threshold, as we covered in our December 2026 MORA analysis. ERS pays sites to stand ready for exactly that kind of unlikely, cold-morning hour.
Impact on Commercial Electricity Buyers in Texas
For a commercial site, ERS is a separate arrangement layered on top of the retail electricity contract, and it reaches the business through three channels: revenue for being available, an operating obligation that can arrive on 10 minutes' notice, and a rule that limits what else the same load can be committed to.
Availability revenue, not a rate cut. ERS money flows from ERCOT to the QSE and then to the site under their agreement, net of any availability or performance adjustments. It does not change the energy price on the retail contract. That price stays whatever the Electricity Facts Label says. Across every plan we track, the TxCP Commercial Rate Index (TCRI) averaged 7.09 cents per kWh in our October 5 weekly report, and an ERS award moves none of that.
An obligation that falls on operations. A December through March award commits the site to shed its offered megawatts within 10 or 30 minutes, for up to 24 cumulative hours, and to stay down until ERCOT recalls it. Facilities, production and finance all need to agree before the QSE submits an offer on November 9, because ERCOT can reduce payments to, or suspend, resources that fail to perform.
Limits on double counting. Section 25.507(d)(4) bars a resource from committing to ERS if it is separately obligated to provide response with the same capacity during any of the same hours. A site already enrolled in another demand response arrangement needs to check the hours before it offers into ERS.
One more channel reaches the wider market, enrolled or not. ERCOT charges each QSE for ERS based on its load ratio share, which is how the program's cost works its way into the wholesale costs retail providers price. The PUCT caps ERS spending at $75 million in any 12-month period, plus up to $25 million more for renewals during a period when ERS has been exhausted. That is a 12-month ceiling, not the budget for this term.
The ERS Winter Fit Test: Four Questions Before October 30
Before a QSE submits your site's ERID information, run the site through the four questions we use to judge whether winter ERS fits a commercial operation, so the revenue never outruns an obligation the facility cannot keep.
1. Is the curtailable load at least 0.1 MW?
That is 100 kW that can reliably come off, or 0.5 MW on the weather-sensitive baseline. If one site falls short, ask whether the QSE aggregates sites to reach the minimum.
2. Can the site respond in 10 minutes, or only in 30?
ERS-10 and ERS-30 are separate products. Choose the one your shift crew or controls can meet every time, including at 7 a.m. on a cold weekday.
3. Can operations absorb 24 cumulative hours of curtailment?
That is the winter obligation per contract period, and a deployment in progress runs until ERCOT recalls it. Map what 24 hours of lost load means for production, inventory, staff and temperature-sensitive stock.
4. Which hours can you commit to?
Offers can cover one or more ERS Time Periods. Commit only to the hours your operation can actually curtail, and confirm the exact Time Period definitions in ERCOT's RFP with your QSE.
What You Should Do
October 30 is ERCOT's deadline for QSEs, which means your QSE's own cutoff for site details lands earlier. These six steps fit inside the next two weeks.
- Pull 12 months of interval data for each site and estimate how many kilowatts can come off within 10 minutes and within 30 minutes.
- List what would actually curtail, such as HVAC setbacks, process lines, pumps, refrigeration cycles or on-site generation, and confirm any permit or runtime limits on backup generators.
- Contact QSEs that represent ERS Resources this week and ask for their internal deadline for the December 1, 2026 term.
- Check existing demand response or curtailment agreements for overlapping hours, since Section 25.507(d)(4) bars committing the same capacity twice.
- Ask your retail electric provider whether your contract says anything about curtailment, demand response or minimum usage.
- Write a one-page dispatch plan naming who receives the ERCOT instruction, who sheds load and who restores it after recall, before offers are due on November 9.
Questions to Ask Your REP or Broker
These questions sort out how ERS would sit alongside your retail contract and who carries the risk if a deployment or test goes badly, and they work just as well with a QSE or demand response provider.
- Do you represent ERS Resources as a QSE, or partner with one, and what is your cutoff for site details for the December 2026 through March 2027 term?
- Which product would you offer our site into, ERS-10 or ERS-30, weather-sensitive or not, and for which Time Periods?
- How are ERS payments shared with our business, and how do availability and performance adjustments reduce them?
- If ERCOT renews the obligation after our site's 24 hours are used up, can we decline?
- Does our retail contract have curtailment, demand response or usage bandwidth terms that ERS participation could trigger?
- What penalties or suspension apply if our site underperforms in a deployment or an ERCOT test?
For more on how demand response reaches commercial contracts, see our summer demand response checklist. To see what your site pays for energy today, read our guide to Texas business electricity rates, and see every commercial plan we track in our data download.
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Frequently Asked Questions
What is ERCOT ERS?
ERCOT Emergency Response Service (ERS) is a reliability program, authorized by PUCT rule 16 TAC 25.507, that pays Qualified Scheduling Entities to arrange for loads and small generators to cut consumption or add generation within 10 or 30 minutes when ERCOT calls, to help prevent or relieve an Energy Emergency Alert. ERCOT procures it four times a year.
When is the winter ERS deadline for 2026-27?
QSEs must submit ERS Resource Identification information to ERCOT by October 30, 2026, and offers by November 9, 2026. ERCOT notifies QSEs of awards by November 20, and the term runs December 1, 2026 through March 31, 2027. A QSE's internal deadline for site details will fall before October 30.
How many hours can ERS be deployed in winter?
ERS Resources are obligated for 24 hours of cumulative deployment time per contract period in the December through March term, versus 12 hours in the other three terms. A deployed resource stays down until ERCOT recalls it, and ERCOT can renew an exhausted obligation only with the consent of the resource and its QSE.
Can a small business join ERCOT ERS?
Yes, through a QSE. ERCOT's minimum offer is 0.1 MW, or 0.5 MW on the weather-sensitive baseline, and a QSE may aggregate several sites to reach it. A business cannot offer directly to ERCOT, and each site must be able to curtail on 10 or 30 minutes' notice.