Washington Energy Report

FERC Issues Two Orders Approving Civil Penalties and Disgorgement of Profits for Violations of ISO New England Inc.’s Tariff

January 24, 2020

On January 10, 2020, FERC issued two separate orders approving Stipulation and Consent Agreements (“Agreements”) between the Office of Enforcement (“Enforcement”) and Emera Energy Incorporated (“Emera Energy”) and Exelon Generation Company, LLC (“Exelon”), respectively. Both Agreements relate to alleged violations of ISO New England Inc.’s (“ISO-NE”) Tariff. Specifically, with respect to Emera Energy, FERC alleged that Emera Energy violated the Tariff’s requirement that evidence supporting Fuel Price Adjustment Requests (“FPA Requests”) must reflect an arm’s…

Washington Energy Report

FERC Accepts MISO Frequency Regulation Enhancements Addressing Supply-Side System Volatility

By Katherine O'Konski & Adrienne Thompson

January 23, 2020

On January 14, 2019, FERC issued a letter order accepting, as of October 15, 2019, Midcontinent Independent System Operator’s (“MISO”) proposal to implement a “Fast First” Automatic Generation Control (“AGC”) framework that, as MISO argues, would deploy fast-ramping generation resources more efficiently. MISO explained that the Fast First AGC framework would better utilize and incentivize fast-ramping resources, including energy storage resources (“ESRs”), for frequency regulation. MISO stated that, with increased supply-side volatility on its system…

Washington Energy Report

FERC Rejects Proposed Unilateral Termination Amendment Related to Mystic Generators

By Tom Marshall

January 23, 2020

On January 9, 2020, FERC rejected Constellation Mystic Power, LLC’s (“Mystic”) proposed amendment to its cost-of-service agreement (“Mystic Agreement”) with ISO New England Inc. (“ISO-NE”) that would have provided Mystic the option to unilaterally retire Mystic Generating Station units 8 and 9 (“Mystic Generators”). FERC found that giving Mystic the option to retire the Mystic Generators early would pose an unacceptable risk to reliability. Commissioner Glick concurred in part and dissented in part.…

Washington Energy Report

FERC Accepts Revisions to ISO-NE’s Calculation of Financial Assurances Requirement for New Capacity Resources

By Sidney Villanueva & Elizabeth McCormick

January 22, 2020

On January 14, 2020, FERC accepted revisions to ISO New England, Inc.’s (“ISO-NE”) Transmission, Markets and Services Tariff (“Tariff”), which update ISO-NE’s Financial Assurance Policy, which aims to ensure that resources achieve commercial operation by the time their relevant Capacity Commitment Period begins. The revisions alter the methodology used to calculate the financial assurances requirements for resources that have cleared the Forward Capacity Auction (“FCA”) but have not yet achieved commercial operation (“Non-Commercial Resources”), basing…

Washington Energy Report

Council on Environmental Quality Proposes Long-Awaited NEPA Regulations Overhaul

By Brooks Smith, Andrea Wortzel, Morgan Gerard, Viktoriia De Las Casas, Patrick Fanning & Rich Pepper

January 16, 2020

On January 10, 2020, the Council on Environmental Quality (CEQ) published the long-awaited proposed rule to amend its regulations implementing the National Environmental Policy Act of 1969 (NEPA). The statute, sometimes pejoratively referred to as a “paper-tiger,” requires a federal agency to take a hard look at the environmental impacts of certain proposed projects, but does not mandate any particular outcome. Continue reading the full article here.…

Washington Energy Report

D.C. Circuit Affirms FERC Undergrounding Decision

By Sidney Villanueva

January 15, 2020

On December 20, 2019, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit (“D.C. Circuit”) denied petitions for review of a series of FERC orders that exempted certain North Carolina transmission customers of Virginia Electric and Power Company (“Dominion”) from the incremental costs to underground certain transmission lines in the Virginia portion of the Dominion’s service territory. The challenges were brought by certain Virginia transmission customers of Dominion Energy, which sought to overturn FERC’s determination…

Washington Energy Report

FERC Accepts Revisions to PJM’s Price Responsive Demand Program

By Katherine O'Konski & Elizabeth McCormick

January 15, 2020

On December 30, 2019, FERC accepted, subject to further compliance, revisions to PJM Interconnection, L.L.C.’s (“PJM”) Price Responsive Demand (“PRD”) program to align the program’s rules and requirements with those applicable to supply-side “Capacity Performance Resources” participating in PJM’s capacity market. PJM previously submitted PRD revisions in February 2019, but FERC rejected PJM’s filing in a June 2019 order, on the basis that PJM’s proposed method for calculating the Nominal PRD Value—i.e., the MW amount…

Washington Energy Report

FERC Accepts CAISO’s Tariff Revisions Addressing Aliso Canyon Natural Gas Constraints

By Miriam Archibong & Kelsey Bagot

January 15, 2020

On December 30, 2019, FERC accepted tariff revisions by the California Independent System Operator Corporation (“CAISO”) to apply three previously accepted-interim provisions designed to address the Aliso Canyon natural gas storage facility’s (“Aliso Canyon”) continued operational limitations and impacts on CAISO’s system.…

Washington Energy Report

FERC Orders PJM to Apply the Minimum Offer Price Rule to All Resources Receiving “State Subsidies”

By Stuart Caplan & Jessica Lynch

December 20, 2019

On December 19, 2019, FERC issued a long-awaited order in which it directed PJM Interconnection, L.L.C. (“PJM”) to apply its Minimum Offer Price Rule (“MOPR”) to all state-subsidized capacity resources (“December 2019 Order”). FERC also adopted limited grandfathering and exemptions for certain resources. The December 19 Order will have a significant impact on PJM’s capacity market. PJM requires resources subject to the MOPR to offer into the PJM capacity auctions at or above a PJM-determined…

Washington Energy Report

Sixth Circuit Holds that Bankruptcy Courts Must Permit FERC Participation in Bankruptcy Proceedings Considering Rejection of FERC-Jurisdictional Contracts

By Katherine O'Konski & Adrienne Thompson

December 19, 2019

On December 12, 2019, the United States Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit (“Sixth Circuit”) issued an opinion affirming in part and reversing in part a bankruptcy court’s assertion of exclusive and unlimited jurisdiction over certain of FirstEnergy Solutions’ (“FES”) power purchase agreements that FERC had previously approved under the Federal Power Act (“FPA”) and that FES sought to reject in bankruptcy. While the Sixth Circuit agreed that the bankruptcy court has jurisdiction to…

Washington Energy Report

Blog Authors

FERC Issues Two Orders Approving Civil Penalties and Disgorgement of Profits for Violations of ISO New England Inc.’s Tariff

FERC Accepts MISO Frequency Regulation Enhancements Addressing Supply-Side System Volatility

FERC Rejects Proposed Unilateral Termination Amendment Related to Mystic Generators

FERC Accepts Revisions to ISO-NE’s Calculation of Financial Assurances Requirement for New Capacity Resources

Council on Environmental Quality Proposes Long-Awaited NEPA Regulations Overhaul

D.C. Circuit Affirms FERC Undergrounding Decision

FERC Accepts Revisions to PJM’s Price Responsive Demand Program

FERC Accepts CAISO’s Tariff Revisions Addressing Aliso Canyon Natural Gas Constraints

FERC Orders PJM to Apply the Minimum Offer Price Rule to All Resources Receiving “State Subsidies”

Sixth Circuit Holds that Bankruptcy Courts Must Permit FERC Participation in Bankruptcy Proceedings Considering Rejection of FERC-Jurisdictional Contracts

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