On January 28, 2014, FERC announced that it will hold a technical conference to discuss local deliverability zones within the New York Independent System Operator, Inc.’s (“NYISO”) installed capacity market.  Specifically, the Commission will explore how the Long Island area (referred to as “Load Zone K”) should be modeled in future capacity (“ICAP”) auctions. 

The technical conference announcement stems from a 2013 proceeding in which the NYISO proposed certain changes to the way the ICAP market ensures that generating capacity is deliverable to load.   Currently, only New York City (“Zone J”) and Long Island (“Zone K”) are modeled separately from the “rest of state” area in the ICAP market due to transmission constraints into New York City and Long Island.  In April 2013, the NYISO proposed to create another new capacity zone because a binding transmission constraint between Upstate New York and Southeast New York would require that a certain amount of downstate capacity requirements be satisfied by resources within the new zone. The new zone would be comprised of NYISO Load Zones G, H, I, and J (downstate load zones) but would not include Long Island’s Zone K, because the NYISO felt there was insufficient transmission to permit Zone K capacity to meet capacity needs in other downstate zones. 

On August 13, 2013, FERC accepted the NYISO’s proposal to establish a new capacity zone (“August Order”).  However, FERC also held in the August Order that, while the NYISO’s exclusion of Load Zone K in the new capacity zone was reasonable, the Commission would like the Staff of the Commission to explore in a technical conference other modeling changes to deal with the export constraints from Long Island.  The January 28 notice announces that technical conference.  

The technical conference will be held on February 26, 2014 from 9:00 a.m. to approximately 1:00 p.m. (Eastern Time) at FERC headquarters.  An agenda has not yet been announced.  A copy of the notice of technical conference is available here.  A copy of the August Order is available here.