ERCOT Storage Performance | February 2026

February was the leanest revenue month for ERCOT energy storage since RTC+B launched. Daily revenue never broke $0.10/kW, and the premium that drove January’s revenue moved firmly out of Day-Ahead Energy and into Real-Time. Doing well in February meant being agile enough to capture RT spikes as they surfaced.

Where January was a Day-Ahead (DA) Energy month driven by Winter Storm Fern, February’s opportunity moved into Real-Time (RT) Energy. Fleet-average DA TBx came in at $1.70/kW while RT TBx ran higher at $2.56/kW, making February the lowest total opportunity month since RTC+B launched. 

With a higher RT TBx, the available spread was concentrated in RT Energy, and this is shown with almost all of top earners’ revenue from RT Energy. 

• Highest earning asset made $2.88/kW, while the top 50 revenue generators averaged $1.86/kW
• Median asset brought in $0.90/kW, with the fleet average higher at $0.99/kW
• RT energy made up the majority of revenue at 80%

The average asset captured 61% of DA TBx in February, the highest rate since RTC+B launched. 

Over a third of the opportunity was still left on the table, but the fleet’s RT Energy reads were strong enough to deliver a record conversion rate even in a thin month.

Similar to the top earners, the top performers also pulled the majority of their revenue from RT Energy, but they layered Ancillary Services (AS) on top of it. That broader stack converted more of the available opportunity into revenue.

• Top performing asset captured 137% of its DA TBx opportunity, and the top 50 averaged 94%.
• Median and average asset captured 61%.

The pattern holds across duration. RT Energy makes up the majority of revenue at every duration band, and the share grows as duration grows. 

Breakdown by asset duration:

• Short duration assets (≤1.24 hours) earned a larger share of their revenue from AS (and the smallest share from RT Energy) than other duration bands. AS stack is the smart use of their limited energy discharge capacity.
• Mid-duration assets (1.25–1.74 hours) have slightly more discharge to play multiple RT spreads. Top 10 leaned into that, pushing harder into RT Energy than the average and pulling back from AS.
• Long duration assets (>1.75 hours) unlock the option to play multiple revenue streams at once. The top 10 used that optionality, picking up incremental DA Energy and holding more AS than the mid top 10 to run a balanced stack on top of their RT base.

Across February, daily revenue never broke $0.10/kW, clear proof that this was a lean month. The defining skill in February was agility – the ability to follow value as it moved across products, across hours, and across markets. The operators who captured the most pivoted into RT Energy when the spread sat there, layered AS where it made sense, and matched their playbook to their asset’s duration.

*Top earners defined as highest $/kW
**Top performers defined as highest percent of DA TBx captured