The NYISO Business Issues Committee on Wednesday approved rule changes regarding transmission congestion contracts (TCCs), hybrid storage facilities, and pricing of fast-start resources and ancillary services, along with six manual changes.

Reserving Capacity for TCC BoP Auctions

The BIC approved the proposed market design for a project to reserve a portion of available transmission capacity for the sale of TCCs in monthly balance-of-period (BoP) auctions.

The Tariff currently requires that all transmission capacity not associated with grandfathered rights or outstanding TCCs be made available for sale in the centralized TCC auctions. NYISO said that could limit the ability of market participants to acquire shorter-term TCCs in the BoP auctions, noting that other ISOs and RTOs reserve some portion of transmission capacity for sale in their monthly financial transmission rights auctions.

The ISO will work on developing software requirements for the approved design next year; the ultimate timeline for implementation, including seeking further stakeholder approval on the proposal, will be determined as part of the annual project prioritization process, said Gregory R. Williams, manager for TCC market operations.

NYISO will limit the amount of transmission capacity that can be reserved from a centralized TCC auction to no more than 10% of the of the transmission capacity not otherwise required to support already outstanding grandfathered rights and TCCs. The proposal would also provide NYISO authority over determining the manner in which any reserved capacity would be released into the BoP auctions.

Ancillary Services Shortage Pricing

It would also make adjustments to shortage pricing values, add more “steps” for a more graduated demand curve and provide for procurement of additional reserves beyond minimum reliability requirements.

The specific details regarding the process for evaluating the need for supplemental reserves will be addressed in the manual, not in the Tariff, said Pallavi Jain, energy market design specialist. The Tariff includes an overview of the process, including the requirement for approval by the Operating Committee prior to implementing or adjusting any supplemental reserve requirements. The next step is to seek Management Committee approval on Wednesday and Board of Directors approval in December 2020 or January 2021.

Enhanced Fast-Start Pricing

The BIC approved modifications to apply its enhanced fast-start pricing rules to dispatchable units.

Current rules relax minimum generation constraints for fixed-block units. Under the new rules, fast-start pricing will apply to all resources that can start up and synchronize to the grid in 30 minutes or less; have a minimum run time of one hour or less; and submit economic offers for evaluation.

Locational-based marginal price calculations in the ideal dispatch will include the start-up and minimum generation costs of all fast-start resources. The revised pricing logic also will apply in the withdrawal state for fast-start resources eligible to submit commitment costs.

The effort is targeted for implementation prior to Dec. 31 to satisfy two FERC requirements issued in an April 2019 order (ER18-33). (See FERC Orders Fast-start Rules for PJM, NYISO.)

NYISO is proposing that a single start-up cost be used in real-time commitment and dispatch for all fast-start units.

The BIC also approved related changes to the Transmission & Dispatch Operations, Day-Ahead Scheduling and Accounting and Billing manuals.

CSR Hybrid Storage Model

Stakeholders approved the market design proposal for co-located storage resources (CSR). (See NYISO Nearing Vote on Hybrid Rules.)

NYISO’s proposal would allow each unit in a CSR to have its own single-point identifier — one for the energy storage resource (ESR), and one for the wind or solar generator. Each unit also would have separate energy resource interconnection service and capacity resource interconnection service values.

The CSR units would be settled at the LBMP at the point of interconnection. Only the ESR unit would be eligible to provide reserves or regulation.

If the Management Committee approves the proposal Wednesday, the ISO will file it with FERC in early February and request an effective date 60 days from filing, with full implementation proposed for the fourth quarter of 2021.

Other Approvals

The BIC also approved the following:

• A new section of the Ancillary Services Manual concerning changes to voltage support services (VSS). Section 3.6.4 will detail test procedures requiring ESRs providing VSS to demonstrate its leading and lagging capabilities while discharging and charging. The lower of the two demonstrated leading capabilities and the lower of the two demonstrated lagging capabilities, as verified by metering data, will be the basis of compensation for the following calendar year.
• An update of the Load Forecasting Manual to reflect the selection of the peak load hour for the capability year and the latest regional load growth factor (RLGF) evaluation criteria.
• A revision of the Economic Planning Manual to address needs from the 2020 Reliability Needs Assessment. Planning will consider both transmission security and resource adequacy needs in the representative system buildout used in the economic planning process, instead of forecasting the system to be built out to meet an assumed resource margin under current manual language.
• Utilization of meter services entities (MSEs) for demand-side resources. NYISO’s distributed energy resources participation model permit an MSE to provide meter services and meter data services to responsible interface parties (RIPs), curtailment service providers (CSPs) and aggregators. FERC has approved Tariff changes permitting RIPs and CSPs to utilize MSEs for demand-side resources. This change would also allow market participants representing day-ahead demand response program and demand-side ancillary services program resources to use MSEs until those programs are eliminated in 2022. If the MC approves this month, the ISO will seek to file with FERC in December.
• Transmission Expansion and Interconnection Manual update to reflect Tariff revisions accepted by FERC that revised aspects of the ISO’s transmission expansion and interconnection procedures, including the class year redesign (ER20-638); Order 845 and 845-A compliance filings (ER19-1949); DER filing (ER19-2276); and Order 841 compliance filings (ER19-467). The Operating Committee approved the proposal Thursday.
• Revisions to Schedule A of the ISO-NE-NYISO Coordination Agreement to allow the grid operators to make changes to the list of interties without requiring FERC filings by both of them. The list of interties and associated transmission equipment will be removed from Schedule A and instead updated via web postings. Schedule A will describe the three ISO-NE/NYISO interconnections as the NY/NE Northern AC Interconnection; the Northport-Norwalk Harbor Cable; and the Cross-Sound Cable. NYISO plans to file with FERC following MC and board approval.
• Removal from section 26.1.2 of the Services Tariff of the notarization requirement for the officer certification. The primary purpose of notarization is to confirm the identity of the signer, but it does not address the truthfulness of the signed statements, said Corporate Credit Manager Sheri Prevratil, who noted that CAISO, PJM and MISO do not require notarization of their officer certification forms. NYISO will require company officers to sign an acknowledgment that the information provided is true and correct to the best of their knowledge.

Marczewski Elected Vice Chair for 2021

The BIC elected John Marczewski, vice president of electric consulting at EN Energy Engineering, to serve as its vice chair for December 2020 through November 2021.

“My technical knowledge of power system planning, economics, projects and operations should help guide the BIC through some of the challenges it may encounter, especially given the many changes we will see coming in the New York electric power landscape, such as integration of significant amounts of renewable generation and storage systems, and the market rule changes that will accompany these trends,” Marczewski said in a statement.