The NEPOOL Participants Committee on Thursday approved updates to Forward Capacity Market (FCM) parameters for the 2025/26 capacity commitment period during its final meeting of the year.
The values, which passed the Markets Committee last month, won 71.84% support in a sector-weighted vote.
ISO-NE had updated the FCM parameters’ values since the November MC meeting as it recalculated offer review trigger prices (ORTPs) to account for the combined effects of the supported amendments. Two of the amendments from the Union of Concerned Scientists reduced the offshore wind ORTP value to $0/kW-month.
The committee rejected the RTO’s original FCM parameters with only 18.33% of the sector-weighted vote, similar to its support at the MC meeting in November. (See “Amended Motion to Update FCM Parameters Passes,” NEPOOL Markets Committee Briefs: Nov. 9-10, 2020.)
The committee also rejected an amendment from Jericho Power on behalf of the New England Power Generators Association, with only 32.97% voting in favor. The amendment would have accounted for the impact net cost of new entry reference unit has on the Locational Forward Reserve Market (LFRM) clearing price by including the unit in the supply stack at its opportunity cost, which would have increased the net CONE value.
Energy Market Value Drops
ISO-NE COO Vamsi Chadalavada reported the energy market value for November was $197 million (through Nov. 23), down $42 million from October and down $142 million from the same month last year.
Natural gas prices were 4.7% higher from October to November, which pushed the average real-time hub LMPs to $27.10/MWh, up 0.8% from the prior month. Natural gas prices and LMPs were down 39% and 21%, respectively, from the same period last year.
Average day-ahead cleared physical energy during the peak hours as a percentage of the forecasted load was 99.6% during November, down from 100.8% during October, with the minimum value for the month of 95.3% posted Nov. 14.
Daily uplift, or net commitment period compensation (NCPC) payments, in November totaled $1.6 million over the period, down $1.2 million from October and down $2.1 million from November 2019. NCPC payments were 0.8% of the energy market value.
Cavanaugh Elected Chair
The committee elected Vice Chair David Cavanaugh, vice president of regulatory and market affairs for Energy New England, as its chair.
Previous Chair Nancy Chafetz of Direct Energy oversaw her final meeting and will remain one of the vice chairs. Other re-elected vice chairs included Doug Hurley, Synapse Energy Economics; Tina Belew, Massachusetts Attorney General’s Office; Frank Ettori, Vermont Electric Power Co.; and Michelle Gardner, NextEra Energy Resources.
Consent Agenda
The committee approved the consent agenda with one in opposition and some abstentions. It included support for ISO-NE’s plan for its third Order 841 compliance filing.
The RTO proposed Tariff changes to comply with three FERC directives. The first change removes Tariff language that could create a barrier to a storage resource’s market participation, effective in the first quarter of 2021. The second is the inclusion of four bidding parameters and a newly defined term that ISO-NE will use to account for the state of charge and duration characteristics in the day-ahead energy market. It would be effective Jan. 1, 2026.
The RTO was expected to file this compliance with FERC on Monday.
2021 Budget
The PC unanimously approved a 2021 budget of $6,220,600 for NEPOOL, down $90,000 (0.9%) from 2020’s spending plan. NEPOOL expects to spend $5,654,000 by the end of this year, $711,00 less than the approved budget. Most of the decrease comes from a $515,000 decline in committee meeting expenses amid the COVID-19 pandemic as all gatherings became virtual events. Committee meeting expenses for 2020 include amounts to be paid to consultants for assistance with ISO-NE’s Future Grid Initiative. The budget also assumes no in-person meetings for the first part of the year.