On May 29, 2026, FERC approved revisions to the ISO New England, Inc.’s (ISO-NE) proposed market rules for the participation of Distributed Energy Resources (DERs) and to implement a one-time extension to the period in which resources are required to resume commercial operation following a forced outage. FERC held that the tariff revisions are just and reasonable because they address a gap in ISO-NE’s rules created during the Order No. 2023 compliance process wherein there was no longer a process for DERs to establish Network Resource Capability (NRC) and/or Capacity Network Resource Capability (CNRC), which are necessary to participate in ISO-NE’s markets, and because they balance needed resource flexibility while ensuring timely repair after an outage.

In 2008, ISO-NE revised its tariff to improve the coordination between its capacity market, known as the Forward Capacity Market (FCM), and the interconnection queue process for the allocation of interconnection capability on its system. Prior to these revisions, the ISO-NE tariff reflected a single interconnection service level—Network Resource Interconnection Service—based on the then-effective minimum interconnection standard that provided generators interconnecting to the system with full market access. The 2008 revisions required that participants qualify for a new type of interconnection service—Capacity Network Resource Interconnection Service (CNRIS)—which offered interconnection customers the ability to interconnect their facilities for capacity under the intra-zonal deliverability standard, up to the facility’s CNRC. These rules extended to DERs seeking to participate in the capacity market.

In April 2024, however, as part of ISO-NE’s compliance with Order No. 2023, FERC accepted additional tariff revisions that moved the FCM rules governing the study of CNRIS to the cluster study process. ISO-NE explained that these revisions created a gap in its tariff with respect to the treatment of DERs. Specifically, ISO-NE explained that its Interconnection Procedures do not apply to the interconnection of DERs, which interconnect via state procedures, and therefore are not subject to the cluster study process. As a result, DERs no longer had a method to secure the equivalent of CNRC. ISO-NE proposed to revise its tariff to provide rules for DERs to achieve equivalent NRC and CNRC to address this gap and to ensure DERs are treated equitably compared to transmission-connected resources for purposes of establishing, retaining, reducing, and terminating the capabilities necessary to participate in its markets.

ISO-NE also proposed to revise its tariff to allow all resources a one-time, two and a half-year extension of the three-calendar year period in which they are required to resume commercial operation following a forced outage without losing NRC and/or CNRC if the resource provides documentation demonstrating that it has “entered into a binding agreement to procure long lead time equipment that will not be delivered in time to allow the resource to return to commercial operation by the end of that three calendar year period.”

FERC found ISO-NE’s proposed tariff revisions to be just and reasonable and not unduly discriminatory or preferential because they close the gap created by ISO-NE’s Order No. 2023 compliance process and create rules that provide comparable treatment for DERs to establish NRC and CNRC. FERC explained that the revisions would potentially allow for broader participation in the ISO-NE markets. In accepting the tariff revisions to allow for one-time limited commercial operation date extensions for resources on a prolonged forced outage, FERC explained that the changes reasonably balance providing flexibility to resources faced with long lead times in procuring equipment due to supply chain constraints, while still ensuring the timely repair of resources on forced outage.

FERC’s order, issued in Docket No. ER26-1956-000, is available here.