FERC Accepts ISO-NE's Updated CONE And Other Forward Capacity Market Values

On October 6, 2017, FERC accepted a tariff filing from ISO New England Inc. ("ISO-NE") proposing updated calculations for various Forward Capacity Market input values, including Cost of New Entry ("CONE"), Net CONE, and Offer Review Trigger Price ("ORTP").  As part of its order, FERC also approved ISO-NE's choice of a simple cycle gas turbine as the reference technology for establishing CONE and Net CONE values—thereby replacing the combined cycle natural gas turbine that had been used as a reference technology by ISO-NE since 2014.

In ISO-NE's annual Forward Capacity Market auction, resources compete to provide capacity to the New England region for a set delivery year scheduled three years in advance.  If a resource clears the auction, in exchange for monthly capacity payments, the resource must offer its capacity into the day-ahead and real-time energy markets every day during the delivery year established in the auction.  ISO-NE calculates estimates of the entry