By William Opalka
Generators are protesting the way in which ISO-NE calculated its installed capacity requirement for the 10th Forward Capacity Auction, saying the RTO hasn’t sufficiently vetted the way it reflects behind-the-meter solar.
In anticipation of its 2019/20 auction scheduled for February, ISO-NE filed its ICR with FERC on Nov. 12 (ER16-307).
The RTO said the only change in its assumptions from prior auctions was the inclusion of behind-the-meter solar resources that are not yet reflected in historical loads, which resulted in a 390-MW reduction in the load forecast.
In a protest filed last week, the New England Power Generators Association said the calculation should be determined by a Section 205 proceeding before FERC, after a more complete examination by the New England Power Pool.
NEPGA and Dominion Resources, which owns nuclear and gas-fired generation in the region, said that the RTO had discussed with NEPOOL stakeholders how the new methodology would be implemented but had not adequately examined related market and operational issues.
The ICR value failed to win endorsement by the NEPOOL Participants Committee, garnering a bare majority of 53%.
“A number of members expressed their opposition to those ICR values because of their view that the values were overstated because behind-the-meter PV was not properly and fully accounted for in the load forecast,” the committee said in its comments.
In a January order accepting the RTO’s filing in advance of FCA 9, the commission directed it to conduct a stakeholder process “to fully explore the incorporation of distributed generation” into its ICR calculations. (See FERC Rejects Bid to Increase DR, Distributed Generation in ISO-NE Capacity Calculations.)
ISO-NE said it developed the 390-MW solar forecast with stakeholders, including state regulators, over a 10-month period.
“In order to determine the load reduction impact of [behind-the-meter] PV resources, the ISO used solar PV production data of currently installed behind-the-meter PV resources provided by the states and distribution utilities. The ISO calculated the PV already embedded in load and then adjusted the load forecast by the forecasted” resources, the RTO wrote.
The New England States Committee on Electricity, which last year challenged the exclusion of distributed solar resources from the ICR calculations, supports ISO-NE’s current ICR filing.
“The ICR … must consider in a timely manner the rapid development of solar PV resources that are affecting system demand,” it said in its comments. “New England consumers are increasingly investing in clean, distributed energy resources in furtherance of state energy programs and policies. The ICR cannot be divorced from these significant investments in solar PV resources.”
ISO-NE is asking for FERC approval by Jan. 9.