Energy market value was up $14 million in September compared to August as natural gas prices increased by 18%, ISO-NE COO Vamsi Chadalavada told the NEPOOL Participants Committee (PC) on Thursday. Market value remained low relative to 2022 and was down $368 million from September 2022.

Between 5 and 6 p.m. Sept. 7, the system hit its highest peak load so far this year, at about 24,000 MW. No emergency procedures were triggered by the event.

Annual Work Plan

Chadalavada also detailed ISO-NE’s 2024 annual work plan, outlining some of their major initiatives for the coming year.

He said the RTO’s “anchor projects” for the year will be:

• • Resource capacity accreditation in the Forward Capacity Market (FCM). (See ISO-NE Lays out Proposal for Measuring Gas Plants’ Winter Limitations and ISO-NE Recommends Delaying FCA 19.)
  • Considering changing the FCM to a prompt and/or seasonal construct. (See Discussion Continues on ISO-NE Capacity Market Changes.)
  • Establishing an energy adequacy threshold through the extreme weather reliability modeling process, now named the Probabilistic Energy Adequacy Tool. (See ISO-NE Sees Little Shortfall Risk for 2032.)
  • Implementing compliance with FERC Order No. 2023. (See ISO-NE Details Proposed Order 2023 Compliance.)
  • Changing the tariff to allow more transmission investments made in response to long-term transmission studies.
  • Implementing the Day-Ahead Ancillary Services Initiative. (See NEPOOL Approves ISO-NE DASI Proposal.)
  • Developing a real-time market clearing engine to support an “exponentially complex system.”

Concerning the changes for transmission investments, Chadalavada said the process will work to allow for more public policy investments that anticipate load growth and resource development.

“The process would enable conversion of longer-term public policy transmission studies, like the 2050 Transmission Study Solutions, into developable projects,” Chadalavada said. He added that stakeholder discussions are expected to begin in the fourth quarter of this year, with a potential FERC filing at some point in the first half of 2024.

New Gas Reliability Study

ISO-NE said the Northeast Power Coordinating Council is proposing a Northeast gas reliability study, which will focus on the ability of the gas network to support the grid. The study will look at the dynamic response of the gas system, including whether the system will be able to support the ramping that will be needed in the future.

“In a future grid, the electricity supply and demand will be much more dynamic, and the study is expected to look at how the gas system reacts to that variability coming from the electric system,” a spokesperson for ISO-NE told RTO Insider in an email.

ISO-NE CEO Gordon van Welie told the PC that NYISO and the Northeast Gas Association likely will be involved, along with Richard Levitan of Levitan & Associates.

The study will model the loss of certain resource types, as well as the performance of the gas system under extreme weather events, van Welie said.

ISO-NE Budget Passes

The committee voted to support ISO-NE’s proposed 2024 operating budget and capital budget, as well as the 2024 NESCOE budget.

ISO-NE has requested a 21.5% increase in the overall budget for the coming year, which the RTO has said will help prepare for the energy transition and retain the workforce. (See ISO-NE Proposes 21.5% Budget Increase for 2024.)

The budget includes a placeholder for a position focused on environmental policy and community engagement, following the requests from all non-New Hampshire New England states for an executive-level environmental justice position. (See States Call for an Executive-level EJ Position at ISO-NE.)

“A successful clean energy transition cannot happen without community engagement and a meaningful role for EJ communities in helping to shape decisions that impact wholesale power and transmission rates and affect how the benefits and burdens of our electric system are apportioned,” the states wrote in their request for the position.

Donald Kreis, New Hampshire’s consumer advocate, declined to sign the request. In a letter to the editor of the Keene Sentinel, Kreis wrote, “the money would be better spent on a position or two that would help the region’s ratepayer advocates rein in runaway spending on transmission projects … and blunt the eternal efforts by generation owners to jigger the ISO New England wholesale market rules to enrich electricity magnates, unfairly, at ratepayer expense.”

NEPOOL Requests Extra Time for Order 2023

On Monday prior to the meeting, NEPOOL requested a 45-day extension on FERC Order 2023 to allow for more stakeholder input (RM22-14).

“With compliance filings due on December 5, 2023, there is insufficient time for proposed revisions to be adequately presented by ISO-NE, fully reviewed and discussed by the Transmission Committee, and voted on by the NEPOOL Participants Committee,” NEPOOL wrote. “If the commission does not grant the requested extension, ISO-NE and the commission will lose the benefit of informed discussion through a complete stakeholder process and the opportunity to refine the compliance package before the filing deadline.”