FERC has approved most of NYISO’s proposed plan to comply with Order 2023, denying several of its proposed variations to the commission’s pro forma rules and directing the ISO to submit an additional compliance filing in 60 days (ER24-1915, ER24-342). 

Issued in July 2023, the order directed grid operators to revise their generator interconnection procedures to a “first-ready, first-served” cluster study process. It revised the commission’s pro forma procedures while allowing for independent entity variations to account for regional differences. 

For NYISO, this meant altering several of the order’s time frames to align with its current Class Year study process, which already used a clustered approach, with queue position playing a limited role. For example, the ISO asked for 596 days to complete the overall study process, slightly more than the order’s maximum of 585, and proposed that its customer engagement window be 70 calendar days, instead of the order’s prescribed 60. 

FERC accepted most of these in its April 17 order because it found they “accomplish the purposes” of Order 2023 and would give both NYISO and its interconnection customers flexibility.  

While several parties protested the proposed 596-day time frame, the commission said “NYISO’s cluster study process has a unique study structure and requirements due to its proposed single, two-phase study process, which already incorporates restudies and does not have a separate facilities study. Thus, the timeline of the proposed NYISO cluster study process is appropriately compared to the timeline of pro forma study process including the pro forma LGIP facilities study timing, contrary to the contentions of” the protesters. 

The commission, however, denied the ISO’s proposal to not allow interconnection customers to use third-party consultants to perform study work. While it argued “that study elements need to be sequenced and managed in a particular order, NYISO does not explain why a third-party consultant could not perform its study within that time frame,” the commission ruled. The variation would not “accomplish the purposes of the cluster study to increase efficiency and provide greater certainty to interconnection customers,” it said. 

FERC also denied NYISO’s proposal to apply penalties only at the end of the process, and not at the end of Phase 1. The commission said this did not provide a sufficient incentive for NYISO to complete Phase 1 in a timely manner. 

And FERC denied NYISO’s proposal to use a 300-day affected-system study timeline, saying it would bring the ISO out of step with neighboring regions that adhere more closely to the pro forma 150-day timeline. FERC told it to either revise the timeline to 150 days in its compliance filing or justify its proposal. 

Finally, FERC rejected NYISO’s method for allocating the costs of several studies as outside the scope of Order 2023, but without prejudice, giving the ISO the opportunity to file it as a separate proposal.