FERC has approved ISO New England’s (ISO-NE) proposal to share real-time information on natural gas-fired power generation resources with interstate gas pipeline operators in order to head off concerns about unreliable generation dispatch.

In an order issued Wednesday, the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) accepted on an interim basis, which became effective Thursday (Jan. 24) through April 30, the revisions to ISO-NE’s Information Policy.

“Our action here is intended to address immediate reliability related concerns for this winter, while providing further opportunity for review of the Information Policy and the NDA [non-disclosure agreement] accepted on a temporary basis here,” FERC said.

Last month FERC issued an order accepted the Information Policy changes and suspended them for five months. In its latest order, the Commission denied an ISO-NE request for a rehearing of the previous order.

The Commission required ISO-NE to submit a compliance filing within 30 days. “Specifically, ISO-NW should specify in the Information Policy that it will share information regarding specific generators only with the pipeline serving that generator directly, or serving the local distribution company that serves that generator, and only when it is operationally necessary, as determined at ISO-NE staff’s discretion, to ensure reliability.

“The Information Policy must also specify that ISO-NE will provide a summary of any disclosed confidential information to the affected market participant within 48 hours following disclosure,” FERC said.

The grid operator requested real time data sharing with pipelines last year, warning of “significant reliability concerns regarding generator performance that may be exacerbated during the upcoming winter” [ER13-356] (see Daily GPI, Nov. 15, 2012).

Prompting the request is a history of generation resources falling short of what was requested of them in times of need, ISO-NE said. The ISO was particularly concerned because the region is relying increasingly on gas-fired resources.

FERC said it “…appreciates the increasing importance of coordination between natural gas and electricity markets for purposes of ensuring reliability, and, to that end, we reiterate here our desire for the parties to continue to make good faith efforts to resolve their differences with respect to the NDA and make a future filing that provides a more permanent means to promote information sharing.” A technical conference scheduled to be held Feb. 13 “will address, among other things, information sharing and confidentiality issues,” the Commissions said.

The topic of gas pipeline capacity and the coordination between gas and electricity markets became a major issue at FERC last year. In August it held five regional conferences on gas-power coordination issues in the Mid-Atlantic, New England, Southeast, West and Midwest regions (see Daily GPI, Aug. 31, 2012; Aug. 29, 2012; Aug. 21, 2012; Aug. 24, 2012). In November the Commission published the “Staff Report on Gas-Electric Coordination Technical Conferences” [AD12-12-000], and called for more conferences aimed at improving the coordination between pipes and power generators.

ISO-NE recently reported that New England’s reliance on natural gas to fuel power generators “could create operational challenges if natural gas supplies become tight this winter,” which would force the region to turn to oil- coal-fired generation “to lessen any operational risks” to the power system (see Daily GPI, Dec. 5, 2012).

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