ISO-NE on Wednesday asked FERC to approve a limited Tariff waiver that would allow market participants to adjust or withdraw their retirement or permanent delist bids for Forward Capacity Auction 15, which are due March 13.

In seeking the flexibility for its participants, the RTO noted the potential for its Energy Security Improvements (ESI) market design to change after the submission deadline.

FCA 15 covers the capacity commitment period beginning June 1, 2024, when the grid operator now intends to implement ESI.

The New England Power Pool’s Markets Committee is meeting three days a month this winter to complete the ESI work before FERC’s April 15 deadline for a filing (EL18-182). (See FERC Extends ISO-NE Fuel Security Filing Deadline.)

ISO-NE said that if FERC grants the waiver, retirement bids will remain due March 13 and that the waiver would apply in the event the RTO makes a non-clerical change to the ESI market rules, in which case a participant could either update or withdraw its delist bid.

“It is very possible” that the RTO will not have completed the market design and Tariff revisions for ESI by the existing capacity retirement deadline, it said in its request.

The Markets Committee will likely take an initial vote on ESI before March 13, but the design may evolve further before a final vote by the full NEPOOL Participants Committee is taken on or around April 2, 2020, the RTO said.

“Should this occur, the delist bids might not accurately reflect the impacts of the ESI market rules, in the form in which the rules are filed with the commission on April 15, 2020,” it said.

— Michael Kuser