ISO Mandating Employee Vaccinations

Based on rising COVID-19 cases in the Albany area, NYISO has delayed by one month its plans to bring staff back to the office and resume in-person stakeholder meetings, changing the staff return date to Oct. 4 at the earliest, CEO Rich Dewey told the Management Committee on Wednesday.

In addition, NYISO employees must get COVID-19 vaccinations, “and the deadline for being able to demonstrate that is also Oct. 4,” Dewey said. Market participants and meeting attendees will also have to show proof of vaccination in order to enter the building, though virtual meeting participation will still be an option.

One stakeholder asked whether the ISO is requiring booster shots.

“At this point we have not updated our policy to include boosters,” Dewey said. “We are tracking the recommendations from the [U.S.] Centers for Disease Control and Prevention] and applicable state government agencies, and we’ve got some medical advisers updating us on a regular basis. … To the extent that the data and the science indicate that in the interest of health and safety boosters are more than just a good idea, we might amend the policy.”

Henri Brings Plenty of Rain, but Few Outages in NY

Hurricane Henri was forecast to hit Long Island on Sunday, but it weakened into a tropical storm and made landfall in Rhode Island, causing no more than 3,000 distribution customer outages in New York, NYISO Vice President of Operations Wes Yeomans said. (See Restoration Efforts from Tropical Storm Henri Nearly Complete.)

“It did hit Rhode Island hard, but [it] mostly became a rain event for eastern New York, and we’re very happy to report no generator or transmission outages as a result of the storm,” Yeomans said.

The ISO did schedule extra operators over the weekend to prepare for the storm, as did other operating areas and transmission owners, and operations management came in for Sunday, he said.

“We did work and coordinate operating plans with [the Long Island Power Authority], but you can imagine it could be tricky in a hurricane,” Yeomans said. “You might lose more generation than you’re losing load, and that’s one set of operating procedures; or you might lose load faster than you’re losing generation, and that’s a different set.”

MC Nixes ROFR Tariff Changes

The committee voted not to recommend that the Board of Directors approve tariff changes to allow transmission owners to exercise a right of first refusal (ROFR) to build, own and recover the costs of upgrades to their transmission facilities in NYISO’s public policy transmission planning process, with only 42.38% voting in favor.

Under the proposed revisions, as recommended earlier in the month by the Business Issues Committee, TOs could exercise their ROFR even if the upgrades are part of another developer’s project selected by the ISO for cost allocation. (See NYISO Stakeholders OK Tariff Changes for Right of First Refusal.)

NYISO continues to think the revisions to establish a mechanism in the public policy process are necessary and time-sensitive, said Yachi Lin, senior manager for transmission planning. “As we have previously mentioned, and given the outcome of the vote today, the NYISO will consider other avenues to revise the tariff. … In particular, the NYISO will look at pursuing a [Federal Power Act] Section 206 filing,” rather than under Section 205.

FERC in April confirmed that New York TOs have a federal ROFR under NYISO’s tariff and Order 1000 for upgrades to their transmission facilities, but the commission declined the ISO’s request for clarification that a TO exercising such upgrade rights should be treated as the developer (EL20-65). (See FERC Confirms NYTOs’ Right of First Refusal.)

Popova Elected Vice Chair

The MC also elected Julia Popova, NRG energy manager of regulatory affairs, to serve as vice chair.

Popova currently serves as chair of the Installed Capacity (ICAP) Working Group. For five years she has been NRG’s lead on state and energy policy strategies across states and markets in NYISO and ISO-NE. She assesses and advocates for changes in federal, state and local government regulations, legislation, and policies.