ISO-NE procured 31,370 MW in this year’s capacity auction, the grid operator said Friday in a press release.
Forward Capacity Auction 17, which was procuring capacity for the region for 2026 and 2027, took place on March 6. The preliminary clearing price was $2.59/kW-month in all of ISO-NE’s zones and import interfaces except for the New Brunswick interface, which cleared at $2.551.
That’s largely in line with the prices cleared in last year’s auction, which ranged from $2.531 to $2.639, but ISO-NE noted that this year’s price “was among the lowest in the auction’s history.” The lowest price in the history of the auction was FCA 14 in 2020, at $2.001.
About 750 MW of new renewables, storage and demand response secured capacity obligations this year, 519 MW of which were solar and/or storage and 130 MW were DR.
More than 5,000 MW of renewables, storage and demand cleared in total, accounting for about 16% of total capacity, ISO-NE said.
“This year’s auction secured the lineup of resources — including clean electricity generation, energy storage and resources that reduce demand — needed to meet the region’s power system reliability requirements, at a low price,” Peter Brandien, ISO-NE’s vice president of System Operations and Market Administration, said in a statement. “The results represent clear benefits to New England’s residents and businesses in the form of cost-effective resource adequacy and support for the clean energy transition.”
The auction awarded capacity obligations to 567 MW of imports from New York, Quebec and New Brunswick.
ISO-NE said finalized auction results, including details on specific resources, will be filed with FERC and announced publicly soon.
