The DERs Aggregation rulemaking (now FERC Docket No. RM18-9) was initiated back in 2016 and was the subject of a 2018 Technical Conference. Now, FERC has posed to the six ISOs/RTOs an identical set of data requests regarding DERs that focus primarily on how interconnection service and distribution service would be provided to DERs. The data requests illustrate an issue discussed in a recent blog post about Order No. 2003 and FERC’s decision there to: 1) eliminate the bright line between its jurisdiction and state jurisdiction over interconnection service and replace it with a blurrier jurisdictional line that is referred to as the “first-use test” or “already subject to an OATT test”; and 2) retain the bright line between its jurisdiction and state jurisdiction over interconnection service when the seller is a qualifying facility (QF) that can sell to third parties. FERC’s questions reflect how complicated this policy is to implement (particularly as a non-QF may become a QF, thus shifting jurisdiction). The questions also indicate how difficult to even determine the role, if any, ISOs and RTOs take in DER interconnections by reviewing their filed tariffs. Taking FERC’s jurisdictional policies and ISO/RTO policies on whether to participate in the DERs interconnection process and applying them to an aggregation that may be comprised of QFs, non-QFs, demand response participants, and storage DERs raises a host of questions that many ISOs, RTOs, and Distribution Owners likely have not even considered. These questions may get those conversations started.
The answers to the questions will probably reveal several interesting things about how much, or how little, any particular ISO or RTO knows about interconnection processes for DERs. Some predictions of what FERC may learn from some of its questions are made below. These are only predictions. For brevity, the data requests are not repeated here.
Continue Reading FERC’s ISO/RTO DERs Data Requests – What Do They Tell Us and What Will the Answers Likely Tell FERC