Emergency Notice

An Emergency Notice is the communication issued by ERCOT when operating in an Emergency Condition. The actions ERCOT takes during an Emergency Condition depend on the nature and severity of the situation.

ERCOT shall issue an Emergency Notice for one or both of the following reasons:

• ERCOT cannot maintain minimum reliability standards (for reasons including fuel shortages) during the operating period using every resource practicably obtainable from the market; or
• Immediate action cannot be taken to avoid or relieve a transmission element operating above its emergency rating.

ERCOT is considered to be in an emergency condition whenever there is a  threat of uncontrolled separation or cascading outages and/or large-scale service disruption to load and/or overload of a transmission element, and there is no timely solution is obtainable. If the emergency condition is the result of a transmission problem, ERCOT shall act immediately to return the ERCOT System to a reliable condition. If the emergency condition is the result of an ancillary service insufficiency, then ERCOT shall follow the EEA procedures.