Greentech Media covered FERCs rejection of the latest proposal from New York's grid operator to allow renewable energy and battery resources to compete against fossil fuels in its wholesale capacity market, quoting AEE's Jeff Dennis. Read excerpts below and the entire GTM piece here. 

The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission has rejected the latest proposal from New York's grid operator to allow renewable energy and batteries to compete against fossil fuels in its wholesale capacity market. That may give the state's regulators and policymakers more reason to consider alternatives to federally regulated energy markets. In a Friday order, FERC’s Republican majority denied grid operator NYISO’s proposal to restructure what it terms its “buyer-side market power mitigation rules” to allow wind, solar, batteries and other carbon-free resources to compete against fossil-fueled power plants in its Installed Capacity Market...

NYISO’s latest proposal came after FERC’s February decision to deny its first plan to alter those buyer-side mitigation (BSM) rules in ways that would free those state-supported clean resources from being forced to use administratively determined minimum bids that are likely to be too high to allow them to clear the market. NYISO said the new rules are needed to reform its capacity market structure to align with New York’s Climate Leadership and Community Protection Act. The CLCPA demands that New York get 70 percent of its electricity from renewables by 2030 and reach 100 percent zero-carbon emissions by 2040...

That view is echoed by Jeff Dennis, managing director and general counsel of trade group Advanced Energy Economy, who noted in a Wednesday email that FERC's latest decision "goes a troubling step beyond its earlier [minimum offer price rule] rulings; rather than pointing to supposed price suppression caused by state policies, it now flatly says that market operators can't even acknowledge the reality of lawful state policies." 

"In its quest to override the states and their clean energy and environmental objectives, this FERC seems willing to risk the collapse of competitive wholesale markets altogether," Dennis wrote...

Read the entire GTM piece here.