FERC Grants MISO Waiver Of Offer Cap During Winter

FERC granted the Midcontinent Independent System Operator, Inc. (MISO) a limited waiver of sections 39.2.5 and 40.2.5 of its Open Access Transmission, Energy and Operating Reserve Markets Tariff (Tariff), which establish a $1,000/MWh Energy Offer Price Cap (offer cap) on incremental energy offers in MISO’s day-ahead and real-time energy markets.

The waiver, which has been granted in prior winters, will be effective December 1, 2018 through April 30, 2019

The recovery of costs in excess of the current offer cap will be limited to actual, verified fuel costs.

MISO stated that it would implement the offer cap waiver identically as in past years. MISO explained that market participants with incremental energy costs in excess of $1,000/MWh will be limited to submitting an incremental energy offer at no more than $1,000/MWh. Market participants will instead include any costs above $1,000/MWh in the hourly No Load value as part of their offer. MISO stated that inclusion of the excess costs in the hourly No Load Offer value will allow MISO to make merit order based economic commitment decisions when committing generation resources in the Day-Ahead and Real-Time Energy and Operating Reserve Markets

While FERC previously adopted on a generic basis a policy change allowing a $2,000/MWh hard cap to set LMPs, MISO's compliance filing to institute such change remains pending before FERC, thus requiring the waiver of the existing $1,000 offer cap tariff provision

Docket No. ER19-27