Dive Brief:
- New England’s annual capacity auction closed with sufficient power system resources to meet peak demand in its 2026-2027 capacity year, ISO New England said Friday.
- The preliminary price was $2.59/kW-month in almost all zones, higher than in the previous two years but among the lowest prices ever, ISO-NE said.
- Nearly all of the new resources securing capacity supply obligations were wind, solar, energy storage or demand-reducing resources. Combined, new and existing solar and wind generation, energy storage and demand resources secured obligations of more than 5,000 MW, or about 16% of capacity clearing the auction.
Dive Insight:
ISO-NE runs the auction annually to procure resources for electric capacity three years later. Held this year on March 6, the 17th Forward Capacity Auction closed after four rounds of competitive bidding.
The auction secured capacity commitments of 31,370 megawatts available in the 2026-2027 commitment period that starts June 1, 2026.
Last year’s clearing prices ranged from $2.531 per kW-month to $2.639 per kW-month across different pricing zones; the auction’s lowest clearing price, $2.001 per kW-month, was recorded in 2020, ISO-NE said.
Nearly 750 MW of new renewable energy, energy storage and demand-reducing resources secured obligations in FCA 17.
“This year’s auction secured the lineup of resources — including clean electricity generation, energy storage and resources that reduce demand — needed to meet the region’s power system reliability requirements, at a low price,” said Peter Brandien, vice president of ISO-NE’s System Operations and Market Administration.
New solar generation and energy storage resources, or facilities combining the two, secured obligations totaling 519 MW. This accounted for most of new generating resources that included wind and a small amount of hydroelectric resources.
More than 350 MW of new and existing wind resources cleared the auction.
A preliminary estimate of the value of the capacity market in 2026-2027 is about $946 million.
About 37,500 MW of resources, including 32,500 MW of existing capacity and 5,000 MW of new capacity, qualified to participate in the auction.
Capacity clearing the auction totaled 31,370 MW, including 27,864 MW of generation; 2,940 MW of demand resources, including energy efficiency, load management and distributed generation resources; and 567 MW of imports from Quebec, New Brunswick and New York.
Finalized auction results, including details on obligations for specific resources, will be filed with the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission and announced by ISO-NE.
