Docket Nos. ER26-3533-000, ER26-3534-000
In today’s order, the Commission accepts tariff revisions that establish a new role for ISO New England Inc. (ISO-NE) as the region’s Asset Condition Reviewer and set forth the procedures that the Asset Condition Reviewer will follow. In this role, ISO-NE will provide independent technical analysis to stakeholders on asset condition transmission projects, which replace or reconstruct aging, deteriorating, or obsolete transmission elements.1 I write separately today to commend the New England stakeholders on their collaborative development of this important new role for the region and to urge others to adopt similar processes that will provide transparency into these types of transmission projects.
Through the Asset Condition Reviewer role, ISO-NE will provide stakeholders with an unbiased and expert review of the need for new asset condition transmission projects, as well as a review of potential alternative solutions. Specifically, the Asset Condition Reviewer’s objectives will be to: (1) ensure that the relevant transmission owner has sufficiently demonstrated the technical need for reconstruction or replacement of existing transmission facilities; (2) ensure that cost-effectiveness is an integral part of the development of potential transmission solutions to address the identified technical need; and (3) provide comprehensive reporting on the Asset Condition Reviewer’s assessments and conclusions in a timely manner.2 Through this role, ISO-NE will provide stakeholders with the necessary technical expertise by evaluating proposed asset condition transmission projects and the transmission system surrounding the location of the proposed projects.
The Asset Condition Reviewer proposal was jointly developed and proposed by the New England transmission owners, ISO-NE, and the New England Power Pool Participants Committee. Stakeholder groups from across New England also filed letters of support in the docket. I call on other regions to create arrangements similar to the Asset Condition Reviewer that New England has established. Doing so will benefit consumers and stakeholders. Finally, as ISO-NE gains experience in this role, I encourage ISO-NE and others who may develop a similar role in their regions to consider whether to extend this expert review and assessment role to consider other types of local transmission projects, beyond what New England categorizes as asset condition projects.
For these reasons, I respectfully concur.
- 1ISO New England Inc., [OSEC, please add a cite to the order], at P 2 (2026).
- 2Id. P 6; see also Proposed ISO-NE, Transmission, Mkts. & Servs. Tariff, § II, Attach. R (Asset Condition Review Process) (0.0.0), § 3(a)(ii) (stating that the Asset Condition Reviewer’s role is “…examining and providing conclusions on whether the PTO [Participating Transmission Owner] adequately evaluated and provided sufficient evidence consistent with Good Utility Practice to establish the need for the ACP [Asset Condition Project] or ACP Program, and adequately explored alternatives to that need; and examining and providing conclusions on the preferred solution selected by the PTO and the PTO’s rationale for the preferred solution.”)