MISO files 3-year auction plan for retail choice areas to meet long-term demand
It may not be perfect, and there are alternatives, but MISO explained in a blog post that a “clear majority of stakeholders agree we need to take action” to address possible near-term shortages in some areas.
“By creating a new forward-market mechanism, market outcomes will ensure efficient capacity is maintained or added as dictated by the market,” said Jeff Bladen, MISO’s executive director of market services. “Competitive retail areas will benefit from knowing that future resource adequacy needs will be met.”
Known as the Competitive Retail Solution (CRS), MISO wants to establish a FRA three years in advance of the delivery planning year that targets competitive retail areas of the grid’s footprint. And in addition to the forward auction, the CRS includes an alternative that would allow load serving entities and states within competitive retail jurisdictions to opt-out of the FRA and instead implement a Forward Fixed Resource Adequacy Plan.
Regulatory authorities at the state and local level charged with overseeing load serving entities for Competitive Retail Demand may also opt out of the FRA, through an election of a Prevailing State Compensation Mechanism.
MISO has been looking at possible changes to its market structure for some time, but the proposal to establish a three-year forward capacity auction in the MISO choice zones has previously drawn concern from stakeholders, in part over the implementation timeline and price formulation.
