FERC on Thursday approved MISO’s request for a one-time waiver giving market participants the opportunity to replace load-modifying resources affected by the coronavirus pandemic.

The waiver will permit market participants that manage an affected LMR to register new resources with MISO to fulfill capacity obligations. FERC said the temporary measure will help ensure reliability during the pandemic (ER20-2156).

“We find that the requested waiver addresses a concrete problem because, absent this waiver, market participants whose accredited LMRs will otherwise be unable to meet their performance requirements for the 2020/21 auction,” FERC said.

MISO requested the waiver in late June, saying that some LMRs that cleared the 2020/21 Planning Resource Auction may not be able to perform because of closures of businesses that would otherwise be used to control load. (See MISO Drafts COVID-19 Waiver for LMRs.) The waiver is considered effective July 15, and market participants have 90 days to register replacement LMRs.

FERC said MISO’s plan is reasonable and doesn’t carry unintended consequences for third parties. No parties protested the RTO’s request.

“The waiver will provide certain market participants affected by the COVID-19 pandemic additional flexibility to satisfy their LMR performance requirements; market participants who have registered planning resources that are not affected by the COVID-19 pandemic will not be impacted by this waiver,” the commission said.

This is MISO’s second filing for a waiver of Tariff requirements as the pandemic plays out. Some interconnection queue customers now have longer to secure proof-of-land use for their proposed generation projects. FERC granted MISO’s request for a 60-day extension of its June 25 site control demonstration deadline in May, when the pandemic locked up government offices and held up construction plans (ER20-1794).