To: Essential Power Newington, LLC (“Company”)
From: New England States Committee on Electricity (“NESCOE”)
Date: June 3, 2022
Subject: Schedule 17 Process – Questions/Information Requests
NESCOE appreciated the Company’s May 26, 2022 pre-filing briefing session in connection with the potential recovery of IROL-CIP Costs. NESCOE submits the following questions and requests pursuant to the process set forth in Section 2.1(C) of Schedule 17 of ISO New England’s Open Access Transmission Tariff. To allow time for additional follow-up, if needed, NESCOE respectfully asks that you provide responses no later than June 13, 2022. Please contact jasonmarshall@nescoe.com and pkimmel@pgklawoffice.com with any questions.
1. Schedule 17 states that “Eligible IROL-CIP Costs are above and beyond the costs paid by the IROL-Critical Facility Owner to comply with NERC CIP Reliability Standards corresponding to low impact requirements.” Please explain how the Company intends to demonstrate to FERC that the costs it seeks to recover under Schedule 17 are incremental and specifically tied to ISO-NE’s IROL-CIP designation.
2. Please confirm whether the Company tracks time to specific accounts associated with meeting the medium impact rating. Please provide documentation in support, including a chart of accounts and charges to those accounts since February 18, 2021. Please also indicate whether labor costs not associated with any specific CIP requirements are tracked using this system.
3. Please indicate if IROL-CIP non-labor expenses are tracked separately. If they are, please provide documentation in support including any charges made to those accounts since February 18, 2021.
4. Referring to [BEGIN PROTECTED MATERIALS] [END PROTECTED MATERIALS] Please confirm that such costs are solely related to compliance with the medium impact rating. To the extent possible, provide invoices or other documentation as support for these expenses. If invoices or other documentation are not available, explain how the costs to comply with the low impact rating were demarcated from costs to comply with the medium impact rating.
5. Referring to [BEGIN PROTECTED MATERIALS] [END PROTECTED MATERIALS] Please confirm and provide supporting documentation for:
a. The amount, if any, of those costs that were incurred in connection with FERC Docket No. ER21-1171-000.
b. The amount, if any, of those costs that were incurred in connection with FERC dockets other than Docket No. ER21-1171-000.
c. The amount of those costs that were incurred in connection with this pre-filing process and preparation of a subsequent section 205 filing with FERC.
d. The amount, if any, of those costs that were incurred in connection with the development of Schedule 17 during regional stakeholder discussions or subsequent activity in FERC Docket No. ER20-739-000.
e. The amount, if any, of those costs that were incurred in connection with any proceeding in the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit or other circuit court.
6. Is the Company proposing to recover a return on equity? If so, please provide the proposed level of such return and justification.
7. The Company’s Schedule 17 – Informational Pre-Filing Summary indicates that Newington intends to include in its section 205 filing an interest expense calculation on recoverable IROL-CIP Costs that is computed by applying FERC interest rates found in 18 C.F.R. § 35.19a to outstanding monthly IROL-CIP Cost balances incurred since February 18, 2021. Please indicate how or where Schedule 17 allows for recovery of such interest expenses.
8. Referring to the [BEGIN PROTECTED MATERIALS] [END PROTECTED MATERIALS], please provide a workpaper showing how these expenses were determined. What information will the Company use to determine the monthly outstanding cost balances? Will a separate balancing account be maintained for this purpose?
9. Given that the Company has implemented an IROL-CIP labor tracking system, will the labor costs from the labor tracking system reconcile with the labor costs in [BEGIN
PROTECTED MATERIALS] [END PROTECTED MATERIALS] or will adjustments need to be made?
10. For its section 205 filing with FERC, does the Company intend to rely on workpapers not provided to Interested Parties in the pre-filing review process? If so, please provide a list of such supporting workpapers along with a description of each.