Board of Directors Elections

ISO-NE and NEPOOL are getting ready to set up elections for two spots on the grid operator’s Board of Directors.

Board Chair Cheryl LaFleur is up for re-election, and she took questions from stakeholders at the NEPOOL Participants Committee meeting on Thursday.

There’s also a vacant seat on the board. The Nominating and Governance Committee — made up of current board members, NEPOOL sector chairs and a representative chosen by the New England Conference of Public Utilities Commissioners — has chosen a candidate, although it’s keeping the name confidential.

“Maintaining the confidentiality of prospective director candidates is done to protect their privacy, as most candidates do not wish to have their identities publicly revealed in the early stages of the process,” RTO spokesperson Matt Kakley said. “Search firms have advised that this confidentiality is necessary to attract highly qualified candidates.”

The secrecy of the RTO’s board elections have been criticized in the past by the states and others. (See ISO-NE, States Seek to Build on ‘Alignment’ Efforts.)

Winter’s Over, Now Get Ready for Winter

After successfully navigating potentially tricky grid conditions during the 2021/2022 winter, ISO-NE isn’t taking any time to rest on its laurels.

The grid operator is diving back in to prepare for next winter, when many of the same worries will remain about pipeline constraints and fuel availability colliding with potentially extreme conditions.

“The winter weather forecast will continue to be a critical factor for the operational outlook and will be closely monitored,” COO Vamsi Chadalavada said in a presentation to the PC.

In keeping an eye on cold weather, the RTO is planning for some tactics old and new. Like in 2021, officials are going to perform a 90-day forward-looking energy analysis ahead of next winter, looking at different scenarios to try to better understand risk.

But they’re also trying something fresh: a tabletop exercise along with transmission and distribution owners to try to “evaluate existing operational processes and communication protocols that would be used during an energy emergency.”

The exercise will include a simulated energy emergency leading to multiple days of shortages, giving the RTO and TOs a chance to practice rotating load shed to manage the energy deficiencies.

Work Plan Updates

Chadalavada also presented changes to ISO-NE’s work plan for 2022.

Most notably, the RTO is changing its approach for resource capacity accreditation, a hot-button project linked to the removal of the minimum offer price rule. Rather than splitting the project into two separate stages for FCAs 18 and 19, the grid operator is going to move forward with it as one for just the latter.

ISO-NE is planning to begin discussions this summer, with a “detailed design” presented by the end of the year and a FERC filing at some point in 2023.

Also newly included in the work plan is ISO-NE’s adoption of a project to develop a way for retired resources to return to service in more circumstances and to enhance the flexibility of retirement delist bids, which has been working its way through the NEPOOL process but hadn’t been accepted by the RTO yet as part of its yearly plan.

Consent Agenda

The PC voted to approve changes to tariff schedules 18 (MTF; MTF Service) and 24 (Incorporation by Reference of NAESB Standards) to comply with the requirements of FERC Order 676-J, as recommended by the Transmission Committee at its March 23 meeting.