ISO-NE will not incorporate an amendment approved by the NEPOOL Participants Committee to include pumped storage resources in its Inventoried Energy Program, yet another wrinkle into the implementation of the chronically uncertain winter fuel security program.

The D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals in June ordered FERC and ISO-NE to narrow the eligibility of the program, removing certain resources — including hydroelectric — that the court found would benefit from the IEP without any functional change to their behavior. (See Court Strikes a Blow to ISO-NE Winter Plan.)

ISO-NE has moved to comply with that order by preparing a filing to send to FERC for consideration.

But Brookfield Renewable Partners appealed to the PC during its Wednesday meeting to allow pumped storage to remain eligible for the program, arguing that the technology shouldn’t be ruled out.

Brookfield operates the 633-MW Bear Swamp pumped storage facility in Western Massachusetts.

“Brookfield’s view is that when the court ruled to remove hydroelectric resources, it contemplated conventional hydro with pondage but did not contemplate pumped storage hydro operating as storage (i.e., daily pump/charge to generate/discharge),” Aleks Mitreski, the company’s senior director of regulatory affairs, said in a presentation to the PC.

The economic rationale for when to operate pumped storage hydro and a chemical battery resource, for example, is identical, he argued; either all storage should be allowed to participate, or none.

The PC voted to approve Brookfield’s amendment to the ISO-NE compliance filing, which would simply specify that pumped storage is allowed to participate in the IEP. But ISO-NE will ultimately not include the amendment in its filing, the grid operator said.

“We believe the directive from FERC was clear that hydroelectric resources are not eligible under this program, and our filing will adhere to that directive,” ISO-NE spokesperson Matt Kakley said in an email to RTO Insider. “That being said, we welcome FERC’s resolution on this issue and will be prepared to implement the program in accordance with the commission’s ruling.”

The filing isn’t eligible for “jump ball” filings, which would formally pit ISO-NE’s stance against NEPOOL’s. Instead, NEPOOL will file comments to FERC explaining the votes shortly after ISO-NE submits its filing, according to NEPOOL counsel.

Brookfield has estimated that the additional cost to the IEP of inserting pumped storage back into eligibility is about $1.5 million.

Other PC Action

The committee briefly discussed a proposal to raise the age limit for members of the ISO-NE Board of Directors to 75, but it ultimately tabled it for further consideration at its next meeting in December.

It did approve the Hydro-Québec interconnection capability credit and installed capacity revenue values for the upcoming annual reconfiguration auctions.

It also approved by voice vote conforming changes to ISO-NE’s Financial Assurance and billing policies to reflect the implementation of the IEP.

Finally it rejected a request for a waiver of the NEPOOL Generation Information System Operating Rules by NuPower Cherry Street, which has been trying to get corrected renewable energy certificates for February and March of this year.