This post is a continuation of our series covering the New York Independent System Operator, Inc.’s (“NYISO”) compliance with Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (“FERC”) Order No. 2023. Compliance filings are due to FERC by April 3, 2024.

The NYISO has spent the last few months developing its compliance plan for Order No. 2023 and now has a fully-formed proposal that will effectuate its new Cluster Study Process. The highlights of this new interconnection process include:

• A rolling, optional Pre-Application process; 
• A more in-depth Customer Engagement Window (which will notably include a physical infeasibility screen to ensure projects that cannot be built due to physical limitations will not move forward);
• A two-phase Cluster Study that incorporates System Reliability Impact Study-type analyses and Class Year Study-type analyses;
• Reduced opportunities for project modifications and curing deficiencies;
• Significantly increased financial commitments in the form of larger study deposits and commercial readiness deposits;
• Significant withdrawal penalties for projects that leave the interconnection process;
• Elimination of the ability to provide deposits in lieu of site control demonstration (except in very limited circumstances); and
• Consolidation of the large and small generator interconnection processes.

At the first Interconnection Issues Task Force (“IITF”) meeting of 2024 last week, the NYISO indicated that it presented its proposed compliance plan to the Operating Committee in mid-December and that it may be making some modifications to the compliance plan in response to comments received at that meeting, but did not provide further details.

As a next step, the NYISO is working on draft tariff language to effectuate the compliance plan, which it anticipates presenting at the February 6 and February 8 IITF meetings. At last week’s meeting, the NYISO indicated that it will be establishing a new Open Access Transmission Tariff (“OATT”) Attachment HH, which will consolidate its existing Attachment S (Rules to Allocate Responsibility for the Cost of New Interconnection Facilities (i.e., the Class Year Study Process), Attachment X (Standard Large Facility Interconnection Procedures), and Attachment Z (Small Generator Interconnection Procedures).

The NYISO indicated that Attachment HH will generally follow the structure of existing Attachment X and due to the overlaps between the new Cluster Study Process and the current Class Year Study Process, many of the provisions of existing Attachment S will remain the same. The existing Small Generator Interconnection process will largely be replaced by the new process, but the Fast Track Process and 10 kV Inverter Process will be housed in Attachment HH.

Attachments S, X, and Z will only remain in the OATT for the purposes of completing Class Year 2023 and transitioning to the new Cluster Study Process.

We will continue to follow the NYISO’s compliance with FERC Order No. 2023 and will provide a follow-up post discussing the next meetings, which are scheduled for February 6 and 8. We are currently not expecting the NYISO to make its compliance filing before the April 3 deadline, but this may change as we get closer to the deadline.