The NEPOOL Participants Committee voted Nov. 2 to delay Forward Capacity Auction (FCA) 19 by one year, seeking time to revise its resource capacity accreditation rules and consider moving to a prompt and/or seasonal capacity market.  

FCA 19, for capacity commitment period (CCP) 2028/29, currently is scheduled for February 2025.  

ISO-NE recommended the one-year delay in September but has yet to make a recommendation on the larger market changes under contemplation. While the FCA typically is held three years prior to the CCP and covers a year-long period, a prompt auction would reduce the time between the auction and the CCP to a few months. A seasonal auction would break up the commitment period into two or more distinct seasons per year. (See ISO-NE Recommends Delaying FCA 19 and Discussion Continues on ISO-NE Capacity Market Changes.)

If ISO-NE ultimately decides to stick with the existing three-year FCA format after the delay to FCA19, the RTO has proposed the following five FCAs be conducted on a 10-month cycle, instead of the current year-long process, to eventually return the auction process to its current timeline. If the RTO elects to move to a prompt auction for FCA 19, it will void the timeline instituted by the delay. (See ISO-NE Details FCA 19 Domino Effect.) 

ISO-NE and NEPOOL submitted the changes with FERC on Nov. 3. 

In response to concerns about the effects of the delay on new resources seeking FCA qualification, ISO-NE proposed two changes which generally were applauded by stakeholders. FCA qualification is necessary for resources to be eligible for reconfiguration capacity auctions, which can allow them to receive capacity payments in the near term.  

First, ISO-NE agreed to allow resources lacking capacity supply obligations to submit qualification materials using the typical FCA timeline, to prevent a delay in their ability to participate in reconfiguration auctions for earlier CCPs.  

Second, the RTO noted that peak demand resources are defined after the capacity qualification deadline, which would be shifted back by a year under the proposed delay.  

To address concerns about negative effects this could have on demand resources looking to qualify in FCA 19, ISO-NE proposed that new demand capacity resources in FCA 19 will include on-peak demand resources and seasonal peak demand resources “consisting of measures that have not been in service prior to June 1, 2024.” 

ISO-NE has proposed a January 2024 effective date for the tariff changes and is continuing discussions on the potential move to prompt and seasonal market constructs. 

A correction was made on Nov. 7, 2023: An earlier version of this article incorrectly stated that the auction delay must be approved by the ISO-NE board before being submitted to FERC. The request was submitted Nov. 3.