By Amanda Durish Cook
CARMEL, Ind. – MISO will likely fall back on its existing Planning Resource Auction design next year after its Competitive Retail Solution failed to win FERC approval, but the RTO says the door is still open on instituting a locational auction construct.
At the Resource Adequacy Subcommittee meeting Wednesday, MISO officials were tight-lipped on whether they would seek rehearing on FERC’s Feb. 2 order or what approach they might pivot to in stakeholder discussions this year. (See FERC Rejects MISO’s 3-Year Forward Auction Proposal.)
While MISO Executive Director of Market Design Jeff Bladen discussed the possibility of rehearing, he stopped short of saying that the RTO would file a request. He also said the reliability issue in MISO’s competitive retail areas remains.
“It’s important to remember that there is a 30-day period where any party to the filing can request rehearing. Effectively, the docket remains open until then,” Bladen said. “I certainly would not prognosticate on if anyone would request a rehearing and what FERC would do with that … but I don’t want to be too opaque. MISO still recognizes that some things need to be fundamentally changed.”
While he didn’t rule out changes for the 2018/19 planning year capacity auction, Bladen said a retooled auction design by next year is unlikely. Bladen also said a “one size fits all” auction approach isn’t likely given the differing state regulatory structures in MISO.
“It’s pretty clear the proposal we made with the forward auction is not implementable on the timeline we proposed. It’s impossible for me to answer the hypothetical on what’s possible between now and the 2018/19 auction, but it’s hard to see [auction changes] implemented before then,” he said.
Some stakeholders asked if the auction would remain status quo until FERC regains its quorum. (See FERC OKs Pipelines, Delegation Order Before Losing Quorum.)
In the interim, MISO attorney Jacob Krause said, commission staff can delegate letter orders only for “non-controversial” filings.
