FERC accepts ISO-NE Order 841 storage compliance filing

U.S. utility regulators have issued an order largely accepting ISO New England Inc.'s revisions to its electricity market tariff as compliant with Order No. 841, designed to remove barriers to the participation of electric storage resources in the capacity, energy, and ancillary service markets operated by Regional Transmission Organizations and Independent System Operators (RTO/ISO markets).

In 2018, the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission issued its Order No. 841, requiring each organized power market to revise its tariff to establish a "participation model" for electric storage resources in the capacity, energy and ancillary service markets. Order No. 841 requires each market's participation model to include market rules that recognize the physical and operational characteristics of electric storage resources and facilitate their participation in those markets. The Commission later affirmed the rule, through its Order No. 841-A, and in October 2019 issued orders accepting the first round of compliance filings by Southwest Power Pool, Inc. and by PJM Interconnection.

For New England, ISO-NE submitted its proposed compliance filing on Order No. 841 on December 3, 2018, citing preexisting tariff provisions governing markets, services and resources; a number of market rule revisions that ISO-NE and NEPOOL jointly filed on October 10, 2018; and "limited additional Tariff revisions needed for full compliance with Order No. 841" including allowing any qualifying technology type to participate as a Binary Storage Facility, allowing electric storage resources as small as 0.1 megawatts to provide energy, reserves, and regulation; and eliminating the allocation of transmission charges to electric storage resources in certain circumstances.

On November 22, 2019, the Commission accepted ISO-NE’s Compliance Filing, to become effective December 3, 2019, with a limited number of revisions to become effective on December 1, 2019, and January 1, 2024, subject to a further compliance filing.