*******TEXAS NODAL MARKET NOTICE*******

NOTICE DATE:  August 6, 2010

NOTICE TYPE:  Market Trials

SHORT DESCRIPTION:  Migration of Zonal MOTE system to Nodal MOTE MPIM Digital Certificate management system

INTENDED AUDIENCE:  QSE USAs

DAY AFFECTED:  August 16, 2010

LONG DESCRIPTION:  The Zonal Market Operations Test Environment (MOTE) is being transitioned over to the Nodal MOTE Market Participant Identity Management (MPIM) system for managing user digital certificate access. The existing certificates used to access the Zonal MOTE environment today will be invalid and will not be able to access the Zonal MOTE system after the migration. The Market Participant (MP) User Security Administrator (USA) will be responsible for creating new certificates or updating existing certificates to add Zonal specific roles in the Nodal MOTE MPIM system. The MOTE system is designed to support the following functionality:

• The capability to support Qualified Scheduling Entity (QSE) Qualification or Requalification at the same or a different qualification level, specifically the verification of functional interfaces to applicable ERCOT systems.
• The capability to permit MPs to validate changes to their hardware/software/data systems (Sandbox Role).
• The capability to permit MPs to validate their interface to ERCOT systems when ERCOT has made significant system changes.

Zonal MOTE testing is limited to qualification into the Zonal Market, Daylight Savings testing or other planned activities. No Zonal Market applications (Day-Ahead Market, Real Time Balancing, etc.) actively run on this platform. MOTE is supported only during business hours. 

The following URLs, which are distinct and separate from the Zonal production environment, will still be available for Zonal Testing:

• testtml.ercot.com
• mostest.ercot.com.

The Zonal MOTE certificate change is scheduled for August 16, 2010.

ACTION REQUIRED:  QSEs who wish to use the existing Zonal MOTE systems are requested to have certificates created or updated in the Nodal MOTE MPIM system, prior to the migration.

ADDITIONAL INFORMATION:  Access for this environment will require a MOTE Digital Certificate that will be issued through MPIM. The ERCOT USA will issue certificates for the Primary USA for each QSE. The QSE’s USA will then be responsible for creating digital certificates for the USER that will be testing in the MOTE environment.

Please note that the MOTE MPIM used to provision certificates is distinct and separate from the Production MPIM instance.

CONTACT:  If you have any questions, please contact either the MPIM Digital Certificate Admin team by email at [log in to unmask] or your ERCOT Account Manager. You may also call the general ERCOT Client Services phone number at (512) 248-3900 or contact ERCOT Client Services via email at [log in to unmask].

If you are receiving email from an ERCOT distribution list that you no longer wish to receive, please follow this link in order to unsubscribe from this list: http://lists.ercot.com.

dh