FERC on Wednesday granted NYISO a temporary Tariff waiver to allow it to reserve 256 MW of transmission congestion contracts (TCCs) for load-serving entities in two upcoming auctions while it seeks commission approval of a permanent fix (ER18-1889).

The waiver will allow 14 LSEs to renew grandfathered agreements for TCCs that would otherwise be sold in the Autumn Centralized Transmission Congestion Contract Auction in August and the November 2018 Reconfiguration Auction.

Last month, stakeholders approved Tariff changes to allow extensions of historic fixed-price TCCs, which originated from grandfathered agreements before NYISO’s formation. (See “Proposal to Extend TCCs Advances,” NYISO Business Issues Committee Briefs: June 20, 2018.)

The proposal, if approved by the ISO’s Board of Directors, will be filed for FERC approval later this summer.

The commission approved the waiver based on NYISO’s statement “that despite expeditiously pursuing the extension proposal with stakeholders, it is impossible to complete the required process of review and approvals, including commission review, prior to the Autumn Centralized TCC Auction.”

Without a Tariff waiver, the ISO said it would risk overselling the amount of available transmission capacity.

The commission’s July 25 order noted that the waiver is limited to the two auctions and that the 256 MW represent only 1% of average total transmission capacity supporting new TCCs.

The commission said it also relied on the assertion of the New York Municipal Power Agency, a joint action agency of 36 member municipalities, that it needed the waiver to support the long-term supply contracts between its member municipalities and the New York Power Authority.

— Michael Kuser