FERC accepts capacity requirements for 2021/2022

The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) has accepted ISO New England’s proposed Installed Capacity Requirement (ICR) value of 33,725 megawatts (MW) to be used in the 12th Forward Capacity Market auction (FCA #12), which commences February 5, 2018. The ICR is the amount of capacity (generation, demand-side resources, and imports) the ISO has determined needs to be available in 2021/2022 to meet the region’s projected peak demand, plus required reserves. The ICR value is calculated using reliability requirements based on the probability of disconnecting load due to a resource deficiency (also referred to as Loss of Load Expectation or LOLE) no more than once every 10 years (1-in-10). 

Local Sourcing Requirement

In a separate order, FERC accepted the ISO’s proposed capacity zones for FCA #12: Rest-of-Pool (Connecticut, Western and Central Massachusetts) Northern New England (Maine, New Hampshire and Vermont), and Southeast New England (Northeastern Massachusetts/Boston, Southeastern Massachusetts and Rhode Island).

In its ICR order, FERC also accepted the Local Sourcing Requirement (LSR) for the import-constrained Southeast New England Capacity Zone (SENE) at 10,018 MW. The ISO has determined the Northern New England Capacity Zone (NNE) to be export-constrained for the 2021/2022 capacity commitment period, and has established a Maximum Capacity Limit of 8,790 MW. Using these values, as part of the marginal reliability impact (MRI) demand curve methodology, ISO New England has developed an import-constrained capacity zone demand curve and export-constrained capacity zone demand curve for the SENE and NNE capacity zones, respectively.