NYISO faced stakeholder scrutiny Wednesday after presenting its final project budget recommendations for next year to the Budget and Priorities Working Group, amounting to an estimated $41.62 million total.

The ISO is proposing 29 market and 37 enterprise project candidates. Although the total is fewer than was suggested when NYISO last shared the proposed budget, it is still about 30% higher than this year’s.

Labor costs are the primary driver behind the budget’s increase, rising from $13.74 million this year to an estimated $18.03 million.

Kevin Lang, partner at Couch White, expressed concerns about the hike, asking how the ISO planned to mitigate rising costs and whether it had the bandwidth to manage the projects or would require help from outside consultants.

“I recognize that some of these [projects] are relatively small and some will be a larger effort, but there are many more projects here than you had in the last few years,” Lang said.

Kevin Pytel, senior manager of product and project management at NYISO, conveyed confidence, saying, “We are comfortable with the workload; it is a lot, and we’re awfully stretching ourselves, but we do feel like it is achievable.”

Lang next asked how NYISO planned to reduce the cost of future budgets.

NYISO CFO Cheryl Hussey told Lang that “to address the increase in the cost of the product portfolio for next year, we’ll be proposing to increase our level of financing by $10 million in 2024,” a request that is under review by the New York Public Service Commission.

Pytel committed to a project prioritization process re-evaluation this fall, aiming for collaborative discussion on potential enhancements. Feedback on the proposed budget or the prioritization process can be sent to kpytel@nyiso.com.

The proposed budget will be revisited at the BPWG meeting Sept. 11, and NYISO aims to obtain budget approval at the Management Committee meeting Sept. 27.

July Operations Report

NYISO CEO Rich Dewey reported to the MC meeting, which also was held Wednesday, that it had been a “cool, long and wet summer” that saw much lower monthly energy prices compared to last year.

NYISO COO Rick Gonzales said the summer’s peak load of 28,735 MW came July 28, noting how August has been particularly mild so far. Additionally, 20 MW of nameplate front-of-meter solar resources were added since June. (See NYISO Operating Committee Briefs: July 22, 2023.)

Working Capital Fund Rebalance

The MC also voted to recommend that NYISO’s proposed revisions to how it rebalances customer contributions to its working capital fund be approved by the Board of Directors.

Every January, NYISO calculates each customer’s contribution to the fund based on the previous year and issues refunds that include interest in February. The ISO wants to rebalance the fund twice a year, in January and July, based on the prior six months. The rebalancing would better reflect recent conditions, and customers would receive refunds more quickly, it said.

The Business Issues Committee has already endorsed the proposal, and the ISO plans to present it to the board for Oct. 16. (See “Working Capital Fund Rebalance,” NYISO Business Issues Committee Briefs: Aug. 16, 2023.) If greenlit, the revisions will be implemented starting in July 2024.