On December 12, NEPGA filed a Supplemental Protest of the Installed Capacity Requirement and MRI Demand Curve values ISO-NE proposes to apply in FCA 13 (commencing in February 2019) (No. ER19-291). On November 27, NEPGA filed a Conditional Protest, conditioned on FERC accepting ISO-NE’s proposal to re-price to $0/kW-month the Retirement De-List Bid offers of resource uneconomic in the Forward Capacity Auction but eligible for a cost-of-service agreement in order to meet a demonstrated fuel security need (in the case of FCA 13, Mystic Units 8 and 9). FERC accepted ISO-NE’s proposal on December 3 (Nos. ER18-2364 and EL18-182). In its Conditional Protest, NEPGA argues that ISO-NE must increase the ICR value (and associated points on the MRI Demand Curve) based on the assumptions ISO-NE uses to establish whether a resource meets a demonstrated fuel security need, which assumptions if applied to the ICR calculation would result in a higher ICR value. In its Supplemental Protest, NEPGA argues that FERC’s reasoning in accepting ISO-NE’s re-pricing proposal is consistent with the relief NEPGA requests. FERC relied heavily on its precedent in two proceedings concerning NYISO’s capacity market, in which FERC reasoned that re-pricing resources held to meet a reliability need is the administrative equivalent of creating a binding constraint in the capacity auction reflecting the reliability need giving rise to the need to hold a resource out-of-market. NEPGA argues that an administrative action cannot be the equivalent of a constraint that does not exist (as is the case with the Forward Capacity Auction and fuel security), and that the reasoning could only plausibly apply to the FCA if its reliability standard is set to meet the higher fuel security standard. ISO-NE answered NEPGA’s Conditional Protest on Wednesday, arguing that it followed the Tariff, that NEPGA’s relief requires a change to the Tariff which request can only come through a complaint, and that NEPGA otherwise failed to establish a finding that the ICR and MRI demand curve values are unjust and unreasonable.