Ben Duwve

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*Ben Duwve was a 2023 summer associate with Troutman Pepper and not admitted to practice law in any jurisdiction.

On September 12, 2024, FERC’s Chief Accountant issued a notice of proposed accounting release (“NOPAR”) to modify the transferability of income tax credits (“ITCs”) related to certain energy projects under the Inflation Reduction Act of 2022 (“IRA”), which allows entities to monetize such ITCs via transfers to independent third parties for cash.  The proposal seeks to treat the transfer of ITCs, including both the cash proceeds of the credit and necessary costs to complete the transfer, as “nonoperating activity” under FERC’s Uniform System of Accounts (“USofA”) accounting procedures.  The proposed modifications are applicable to public utilities, licensees, and natural gas companies.Continue Reading FERC Chief Accountant Proposes to Modify Transferability of Income Tax Credits

On September 10 and 11, 2024, FERC staff held a two-day workshop at its headquarters in Washington, DC on opportunities to further refine the generator interconnection queue process. Panelists and FERC staff discussed potential enhancements to transmission planning and processing interconnection requests over the course of six panels on discrete issues related to interconnection queue reform. Panelists included representatives from public utilities, independent power producers, transmission providers, RTOs/ISOs, research organizations, and technology firms. Key points from each panel are summarized below. On September 12, 2024, FERC issued a formal notice requesting written post-workshop comments, which are due October 15, 2024.Continue Reading FERC Holds Workshop on Innovations & Efficiencies in Generator Interconnection Process, Seeks Comments

On July 3, 2023, FERC affirmed its earlier determination that Bluescape Energy Partners, LLC’s (“Bluescape”) appointment of a non-independent director to Evergy Inc.’s (“Evergy”) Board of Directors overcomes the rebuttable presumption of a lack of control under FERC’s regulations that normally applies when a company owns less than 10 percent of another company’s equity (see October 27, 2022 edition of the WER).  Additionally, FERC clarified that the appointment of a non-independent director is a per se finding of control and found affiliation between Bluescape and Evergy, and therefore between Bluescape and Evergy’s public utility subsidiaries, pursuant to the definition of “affiliate” under FERC’s rules.Continue Reading FERC Affirms Finding of Affiliation Over Appointment of Director

On June 15, 2023, FERC issued two final rules aimed at boosting bulk power system resilience by improving how grid operators assess and plan for extreme weather impacts to the transmission system. One rule directs NERC to develop a reliability standard that requires transmission system planners to account for a range of extreme weather conditions, and the other rule directs each FERC-jurisdictional transmission provider to submit an informational report to the Commission that outlines its policies and processes for conducting extreme weather vulnerability assessments.Continue Reading FERC Directs NERC to Develop New Transmission Planning Reliability Standard; Directs Transmission Providers to Submit One-Time Informational Reports on Extreme Weather Risk Assessment

On June 2, 2023, FERC accepted in part and rejected in part Public Service Company of Colorado’s (“PSCo”) proposed revisions to its Large Generator Interconnection Procedures (“LGIP”) and Large Generator Interconnection Agreement (“LGIA”). In largely accepting PSCo’s proposed revisions, FERC found that the reforms would either strengthen the ability of PSCo to process generator interconnection requests or provide general improvements to existing processes.Continue Reading FERC Accepts in Part and Rejects in Part PSCo’s Proposed LGIP & LGIA Revisions