FERC last week accepted NYISO’s proposed Tariff changes establishing a mechanism to recover costs for eligible transmission projects in the ISO’s Comprehensive System Planning Process.

The commission’s order accepted revisions to section 6.10 (Rate Schedule 10) and Attachment Y of NYISO’s Tariff effective Oct. 18 (ER17-2327).

NYISO submitted the proposed revisions in August, arguing that since the commission approved the current Rate Schedule 10 in 2008, it has instituted new planning procedures that created gaps in its ability to fairly allocate transmission cost recovery.

The grid operator said the proposed Tariff revisions would “enhance and expand the applicability of Rate Schedule 10, so that it can be used for all regulated transmission projects in any of the three planning processes (i.e., reliability, economic and public policy-driven.”

The tariff changes replace its existing Reliability Facilities Charge with a new Regulated Transmission Facilities Charge that will allow NYISO to recover from load-serving entities — and pay to transmission developers — the costs associated with any regulated transmission project that is eligible for cost allocation and recovery under its Comprehensive System Planning Process.

While New York transmission owners generally supported NYISO’s filing, they asserted that some language in the proposed revisions might inadvertently modify the abandoned plant costs that a TO or developer is eligible to recover under the state’s reliability planning process.

The commission ruled that the TOs did not explain the basis for their position and, “given the lack of specificity” in their comments, there were no grounds for it to act on their concerns. The commission also said that it already made clear that it would “grant abandoned plant recovery on a case-by-case basis and that Order No. 1000 did not provide a blanket grant of abandoned plant recovery.”

— Michael Kuser