NEPGA Formally Approved for Membership

For more than 15 years, the New England Power Generators Association (NEPGA) participated in the NEPOOL stakeholder process through a standing invitation to attend meetings as a guest. Moving forward, NEPGA has a paid seat at the table.

The NEPOOL Participants Committee approved NEPGA’s membership application as a non-voting Fuels Industry Participant at its monthly meeting Thursday. According to a memo from NEPOOL counsel Pat Gerity, of Day Pitney, distributed before the vote, NEPGA wanted to “formalize its participation in the NEPOOL stakeholder process.”

NEPGA President Dan Dolan told RTO Insider on Friday that there were “two fundamental reasons” NEPGA applied for membership.

“First is comparable treatment,” Dolan said. “Historically, trade associations and other advocacy groups have not been equal members, but that door opened a couple of years ago, when we saw the American Petroleum Institute and Advanced Energy Economy both seek and receive NEPOOL membership in large part because they didn’t have the same guest status that NEPGA has been able to enjoy.”

Dolan added that API and AEE have been able to formally propose amendments on their behalf, participate in executive session discussions, such as the consideration of nominees to the ISO-NE Board of Directors. However, as guests in the NEPOOL process, NEPGA could not do either of those things.

“The second element is that formal process of participation. Every time NEPGA proposed an amendment or a concept in the NEPOOL process, it had to be sponsored by an entity that is a NEPOOL member. All [NEPGA] members are NEPOOL members, and so we were always able to do that. As you can imagine, one of the benefits of participating in a trade association is not having to have an individual company lead on a particular issue,” Dolan said. “Even the process of getting sponsorship was … 99% of the time, no issues whatsoever. There are a small handful of times in which no individual company wants to ‘own or be behind’ [an amendment], and it should be something that comes from the full NEPGA as an organization.”

Dolan said he heard that NEPGA was not a Fuels Industry Participant throughout the membership process but decided to apply under that non-voting banner for a specific reason.

“We’re not a direct participant in the market; as such we didn’t seek a voting right,” Dolan said. “I think that’s better done by our individual companies and members rather than us as a trade group, but we still want to be able to participate and have the same governance rights as some of the other entities. So, it’s simply a codification of the participation that we’ve largely had for almost 20 years now.”

No voting member of the PC opposed NEPGA’s membership, though there was an abstention. Dolan said NEPGA “patted ourselves on the back slightly” after the vote.

“While we absolutely butt heads with a lot of folks on substantive issues, I hope my interpretation is that we participate in good faith and are an important part of the overall conversation,” Dolan said.

Energy Market Value Drops

ISO-NE’s energy market value for May was $194 million (through May 25), down $53 million from the updated April valuation and $48 million higher than the same month in 2020, according to COO Vamsi Chadalavada’s monthly report to the PC.

May natural gas prices were 0.6% lower than in April. Average real-time hub LMPs were 10% lower than in April, at $23.32/MWh. Average natural gas prices and real-time hub LMPs were up 69% and 30%, respectively, from the same period last year.

Daily uplift or net commitment period compensation (NCPC) payments totaled $1 million over the period, down $1.7 million from the adjusted April value and $1.4 million less than May 2020. NCPC payments were 0.5% of the energy market value.

Chadalavada said that four new projects totaling 209 MW applied for an interconnection study — one co-located battery and solar project, two solar projects and one natural gas project — with in-service dates ranging from 2022 to 2025. ISO-NE is currently tracking 290 generation projects, which total approximately 31,047 MW.