The New England Power Generators Association (NEPGA) on Monday filed a request for rehearing of FERC’s Oct. 6 order accepting ISO-NE’s updated cost of new entry value for the RTO’s capacity auctions (ER17-795).

ISO-NE is required to recalculate the values every three years and will apply the revisions in next February’s Forward Capacity Auction 12 covering the 2021/22 capacity commitment period, as well as in FCAs 13 and 14. (See FERC Approves ISO-NE CONE, Offer Trigger Updates.)

In its Nov. 6 filing, NEPGA specified several perceived errors in FERC’s order and asked the commission to reconsider its previous finding that a net CONE value based on simple cycle generator technology is just and reasonable. The group instead favors basing that value on the costs needed to support a combined cycle turbine. It is asking the commission to change the rules in time for FCA 12, which begins Feb. 7, 2018.

NEPGA contended that the order was “arbitrary and capricious and not the product of reasoned decision-making” because the commission did not balance the financial interests of capacity providers against the “substantial” benefits conferred to load. The group also argued that the commission failed to consider the record of evidence indicating that simple cycle generators are not likely to be built in New England.

The $8.04/kW-month net CONE value proposed by the grid operator will cause a $1.5 billion reduction in market-wide capacity revenues at equilibrium from FCA 11 to FCA 12, which for a 500-MW capacity resource means a $22.8 million cut in capacity revenues in a single year, and more than $67 million during the three years covered by the auction, NEPGA said.

The filing did not seek to change the commission’s approval of offer review trigger price (ORTP) values, which were also part of the order.

— Michael Kuser