ISO-NE prepares to release capacity auction results after court lifts stay

On Wednesday, March 2, the D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals lifted its stay of a Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) order that terminated Killingly Energy Center’s capacity supply obligations. In light of the court’s order—as well as a February 23 order in which FERC denied NTE Connecticut LLC’s rehearing request and upheld the termination—ISO New England is preparing to release preliminary results from Forward Capacity Auction (FCA) 16 next week.

The court issued its order in response to the ISO’s emergency motion to lift the stay. Killingly’s project sponsor, NTE, had opposed the ISO’s request. FERC issued its original order terminating Killingly’s capacity supply obligation on January 3, to become effective on January 4.

The ISO conducted FCA 16 as scheduled on February 7. To comply with the court’s stay, which was issued on February 4, the ISO allowed Killingly to participate in the auction, calculating results with and without Killingly. The ISO will release the set of FCA 16 results that do not include Killingly.

In a typical year, the ISO releases preliminary FCA results a few days after the auction. Given the litigation-related uncertainty surrounding Killingly’s status, the ISO has kept the FCA 16 results confidential pending greater clarity. This protected the commercially-sensitive information that might otherwise be revealed through publication of FCA results. This approach allowed the ISO to conduct the auction in a timely fashion, consistent with the requirements of its tariff, while addressing the uncertainty created by the stay.

This article has been updated with additional information.

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Industry News & Developments
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FCA 16, wholesale markets