Bidding is limited to the lead market participant of capacity resources qualified for the Forward Capacity Auction (FCA). Each bidder is required to have a valid digital certificate and be assigned the role of Forward Capacity Auction/Authorized Individual in ISO's Customer and Asset Management System (CAMS) before the FCA. Authorized individuals granted this role after will not be able to participate in the FCA.

The Security Administrator (SA) for your company is the person authorized by your company to assign user roles, including this role (Forward Capacity Auction/Authorized Individual) in ISO's CAMS system.

The FCA is conducted in discrete rounds. Intraround bids allow bidders in each round to express their demand curves along a line segment between the starting and ending price for the round. This process allows the auction to be conducted in a limited number of rounds since preferences for intermediate prices can be expressed, allowing the auction manager to choose a larger bid increment.

The auction manager will set the prices within the auction to facilitate an efficient auction.

The auction manager will announce before the FCA is conducted the total amount of capacity participating in the auction.

The auction manager conducts a mock auction prior to the FCA. In addition, a bidder's manual will be available several weeks before each FCA.