New England state energy officials are urging ISO-NE to share confidential data about fuel supply and grid reliability with FERC ahead of the upcoming winter.

In a letter to ISO-NE this week, the New England States Committee on Electricity (NESCOE) said it would accept the RTO’s decision not to move forward with a winter reliability or inventoried energy program this year. (See ISO-NE Says No Extra Winter Programs Make Sense this Year.)

But the group said that it is “very concerned that the long-known, significant structural issues contributing to winter reliability challenges remain unresolved.”

To that end, it urged ISO-NE to share with FERC the confidential data that drove the decision not to create a winter program this year before the commission holds a forum in Vermont next month to discuss reliability issues in New England. That could include information about “fuel supplies, resource availability, historical resource performance and overall system conditions” to which the public does not have access.

“We understand that your recommendation for this winter rests in part on your confidence in your assumptions about oil and LNG availability over the coming months, which are based on both economic expectations grounded in historical actions and information not available to us or other stakeholders,” the letter says. “Sharing your analysis and the confidential information behind your fuel supply assumptions and recommendation with FERC would be helpful and appropriate given FERC’s regulatory role, ability to receive and protect confidential information, and expressed interest in discussing New England’s winter 2022/2023 outlook.”

The letter comes a few days after the states’ governors wrote to the Biden administration urging it to consider several actions before this winter, including a waiver of the Jones Act for LNG deliveries to the region. (See New England Governors Ask Feds for Help with Winter Reliability.)