On February 28, 2019, following a July 2018 voluntary remand order from the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit (“D.C. Circuit”), FERC reversed tariff waivers it previously granted to the Southwest Power Pool, Inc. (“SPP”) regarding customer crediting payments for certain network upgrades.  FERC had granted a waiver of the one-year time bar for billing adjustments in SPP’s tariff so that SPP could retroactively reimburse transmission customers for qualifying network upgrade…

On February 21, 2019, FERC issued an order (“Order No. 845-A”) granting in part and denying in part various requests for rehearing and clarification of its determinations in Order No. 845.  In Order No. 845, FERC revised its interconnection rules for large generators, i.e., generators with capacities greater than 20 MW.  Although the requests for rehearing asked FERC to reconsider all but one of the Order No. 845 reforms, Order No. 845-A effectively leaves the…

On February 8, 2019, FERC approved nine revisions to the New York Independent System Operator, Inc. (“NYISO”) Tariff addressing its Public Policy Transmission Planning Process.  While the changes mainly provide additional process and transparency to NYISO’s existing procedures, NYISO also removed the requirement that the New York Public Service Commission (“New York Commission”) issue an order confirming the transmission need before NYISO can move forward with its planning process.…

On January 31, 2019, Commissioner Cheryl LaFleur announced that she is no longer seeking a third term and will be leaving FERC this year.  Commissioner LaFleur stated that she plans to stay at least until her current term expires, on June 30, 2019, and may stay longer depending on her plans and the appointment of her successor.…

On January 23 and 24, 2019, the Department of Energy (“DOE”) announced $78 million in federal funding to improve existing coal-fired power plants and for grid modernization.  Both funding programs come from DOE’s Office of Fossil Energy.…

On January 8, 2019, FERC approved revisions to the PJM Interconnection, L.L.C. (“PJM”) Tariff and Operating Agreement regarding the use of transmission constraint penalty factors in its market operations.  PJM’s filing responds to new market transparency requirements set out in Order No. 844, the result of FERC’s rulemaking addressing uplift cost allocation and transparency in Regional Transmission Organizations (“RTOs”) and Independent System Operators (“ISOs”).  In accepting PJM’s proposed revisions, FERC found the revisions would provide…

On December 20, 2018, FERC issued a series of nine orders addressing how certain public utilities calculate accumulated deferred income tax (“ADIT”) balances in their transmission formula rates.  The orders were the result of separate proceedings under Section 206 of the Federal Power Act (“FPA”), which FERC initiated after concluding in a June 21, 2018 order (“June Order”) that the use of its former “two-step” ADIT averaging methodology may be unjust and unreasonable.…