Dive Brief:
- The New England ISO and the New England Power Pool Participants Committee last month jointly submitted to the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) revisions to Market Rule 1, with a goal of fully integrating demand response into the region's wholesale electricity markets on June 1, 2018.
- The proposal caps a series of filings that began with the ISO’s compliance related to FERC Order 745, which set standards for demand response in wholesale markets and brought the resource under the agency's jurisdiction.
- Once fully integrated, demand response resources would be able to participate directly in the New England day-ahead and real-time energy markets, while also providing other services.
Dive Insight:
FERC finalized Order 745 in 2011, and in the ensuing years, the rule survived a series of challenges before finally being upheld by the U.S. Supreme Court. The lengthy court battle only ended just last year, and now wholesale market operators are getting down to brass tacks.
The New England ISO notes its recent filing "represents the latest, and final, in a series of filings that began with the ISO’s Order No. 745 compliance filing."
In addition to participating in day-ahead and real-time markets, demand response will be able to provide operating reserves and can participate directly in the forward reserve market. Demand response resources will also be able to receive obligations and compensation in the forward capacity market that are "fully comparable with dispatchable resources," the ISO said.
The tariff revisions specifically relate to several issues, including: energy market offers, price formation and settlements, provisions for spinning reserves, and the forward capacity market.
The ISO noted the revisions "were unanimously supported by NEPOOL’s technical committees and were similarly unanimously supported by the NEPOOL Participants Committee (with one abstention)." If federal regulators sign off, the new market rules will go into effect June 1, 2018.