NYISO last week filed a petition with the D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals asking it to review FERC’s rejection of the ISO’s proposal to exempt public policy resources from its buyer-side mitigation rules (ER20-1718-001).
FERC in September rejected NYISO’s proposal to allow public policy resources in New York City and zones G-I to avoid buyer-side mitigation if enough existing capacity exits the market or demand increases enough to boost capacity requirements. NYISO’s petition followed the commission’s denial of its request for rehearing in November. (See FERC Rejects NYISO Bid to Aid Public Policy Resources.)
To win an exemption from NYISO mitigation, a new entrant must pass one of two exemption tests. Part A allows exemptions if the forecast of capacity prices in the first year of a new entrant’s operation is higher than the default offer floor. Part B permits exemptions if the forecast of capacity prices in the first three years of a new entrant’s operation is higher than its net cost of new entry. NYISO’s proposal would have strengthened Part A by, among other things, performing the test before Part B and putting public policy resources ahead of other resources in Part A evaluations.
“We disagree that the prevalence of public policy resources in the future composition of New York state’s resource mix means they are not similarly situated to nonpublic policy resources for the purposes of the Part A test,” the commission said in its ruling.
After the rejection, NYISO CEO Rich Dewey said, “We worked closely with market participants on a design we felt addressed FERC’s jurisdictional obligations and New York’s right to implement renewable energy policies.”
The commission voted 3-1 to reject the proposal, with Commissioner Richard Glick dissenting. “The proposal received a supermajority of votes in the stakeholder process, and not a single party protested this issue before the commission, including any of the generator groups that have cheered on the commission’s slew of recent buyer-side mitigation orders,” Glick said.