By William Opalka

Three competitive transmission developers asked FERC last week to order NYISO to issue a new request for proposals for transmission upgrades to alleviate congestion and bring renewable energy downstate (EL16-84).

The RFP was issued in February in response to a New York Public Service Commission order that declared a public policy need for two projects in the Mohawk and Hudson valleys to deliver energy to load centers in and around New York City. (See NYPSC Directs NYISO to Seek Tx Bids.)

The developers — Boundless Energy NE, CityGreen Transmission and Miller Bros. — say NYISO violated its Tariff and FERC directives under Order 1000 when it solicited projects without conducting its own review and instead deferred to state regulators.

“We are filing a petition with FERC because the NYISO violated its FERC tariff by inappropriately deferring to the New York Public Service Commission rather than follow its FERC-approved transmission planning function,” Boundless President Rod Lenfest said in a statement.

“Based on FERC’s own guidelines, the NYPSC has a limited role in the energy transmission planning process. While that planning process allows the NYPSC to identify to the NYISO the transmission needs for the state, here the NYPSC went even further and pushed for a particular project solution to meet those needs. Rather than consider these projects along with other alternatives that could reduce costs for consumers, the NYISO decided to consider only proposals for the particular projects identified by the NYPSC.”

The developers asked FERC “to confirm that the NYISO, not the NYPSC, is the entity that is required to study and identify the specific project solutions.”

The plaintiffs said the ISO should follow its normal study process — including its base assumptions and generator dispatch modeling — to consider competing solutions without excluding specific technologies or relying on the PSC’s assumptions and modeling.

Developers’ proposals, which were submitted in late April, are currently being evaluated by NYISO staff.

Boundless CEO E. John Tompkins said in an affidavit that the company is seeking a stay of the solicitation process in the appellate division of the state Supreme Court.

The company participated in an evaluation of potential projects last year by NYPSC staff in its AC Transmission initiative. But staff recommended that the developer be disqualified because its proposals were deemed to be not cost-effective. (See NYPSC Staff Recommends $1.2B in Transmission Projects.) Boundless also sought a rehearing of the NYPSC order that declared the public policy need, but that petition was denied in February.

Earlier this month, NYISO named 10 project finalists in a concurrent public policy proceeding designed to alleviate congestion in the Buffalo area. (See NYISO Identifies 10 Public Policy Tx Projects.)