On December 28, 2017, the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Virginia (“District Court”) held that Powhatan Energy Fund LLC, Dr. Houlian Chen, and two funds owned by Dr. Chen (collectively, “Respondents”) are entitled to a full civil trial in FERC’s action to enforce penalties against Respondents for allegedly manipulating electricity markets.  Notably, the District Court held that a plenary civil trial was required because Respondents elected to forego a formal hearing before a FERC Administrative Law Judge (“ALJ”).  In lieu of a hearing before a FERC ALJ, Respondents instead elected to have FERC assess penalties upon finding a violation occurred, based on the investigative record. Thus, according to the District Court, a proper administrative record was never developed and Respondents were never permitted an opportunity to conduct their own independent discovery.
Continue Reading Virginia District Court Orders Discovery in FERC Enforcement Case Against Powhatan

On January 2, 2018, the California Independent System Operator Corp. (“CAISO”) announced plans to become its own reliability coordinator by spring 2019.  The plan will require CAISO to withdraw from Peak Reliability, the current reliability coordinator for the Western Interconnection. Although the full suite of reliability services to be offered remains unclear, CAISO stated that it will offer outage coordination, day-ahead planning, and real-time monitoring reliability services.
Continue Reading CAISO to Become Its Own Reliability Coordinator

On December 21, 2017, FERC accepted the Southwest Power Pool, Inc.’s (“SPP”) proposed tariff revisions related to its Integrated Transmission Planning (“ITP”) process contained in SPP’s Open Access Transmission Tariff (“Tariff”).  In 2015, SPP created the Transmission Planning Improvement Task Force (“Task Force”) to review its transmission planning process to determine if improvements were needed.  Based on the Task Force’s recommendations, SPP proposed to revise certain language in its Tariff, including moving from a three-year transmission planning cycle to a one-year cycle.
Continue Reading FERC Accepts SPP’s One-Year Transmission Planning Cycle Proposal

On December 11, 2017, BP America Inc., BP Corporation North America Inc., BP America Production Company, and BP Energy Company (collectively, “BP”) requested FERC to dismiss its July 11, 2016 order (“July 11 Order”) assessing civil penalties against BP and requiring BP to disgorge profits for violating FERC’s anti-market manipulation rule.  In doing so, BP argued that, due to recent federal court cases, the law had changed regarding the statute of limitations for actions imposing civil penalties and disgorgement.  Therefore, according to BP, FERC’s August 5, 2013 order to show cause issued to BP failed to commence a “proceeding” within the meaning of the statute of limitations for enforcing civil fines and penalties, and thus FERC’s assessment of civil penalties and disgorgement was time-barred.  Rather, BP argued that the statute of limitations began to run on November 25, 2008 at the latest, and thus FERC was required to commence a “proceeding” by November 25, 2013, but FERC did not commence a “proceeding” until May 15, 2014 at the earliest when it set the matter for hearing.
Continue Reading BP Argues FERC Must Dismiss Market Manipulation Claims due to Five-Year Statute of Limitations

On November 28, 2017, FERC accepted in part and rejected in part the California Independent System Operator Corporation’s (“CAISO”) two sets of tariff revisions concerning natural gas system limitations on CAISO’s system and market operations.  Specifically, FERC accepted CAISO’s proposed extension, for one additional year, of temporary Aliso Canyon tariff revisions that FERC previously accepted on an interim basis.  However, FERC rejected CAISO’s proposal to make other interim measures permanent and to extend their application to the entire CAISO-operated western grid, including the CAISO-operated Western Energy Imbalance Market (“EIM”).
Continue Reading FERC Grants Partial Extension of Aliso Canyon Related Tariff Revisions

On November 3, 2017, FERC largely denied rehearing requests from a group of generation developers (“Generation Developers”) regarding the Midcontinent Independent System Operator, Inc.’s (“MISO”) revisions to its Generator Interconnection Procedures (“GIP”) and its pro forma Generator Interconnection Agreement (“GIA”).  With the exception of one issue, FERC otherwise rejected the Generation Developers requests that FERC reconsider prior MISO revisions regarding the efficiency and timeliness of MISO’s generator interconnection queue process contained in Attachment X of its Open Access Transmission, Energy and Operating Reserve Markets Tariff (“Tariff”).
Continue Reading FERC Largely Denies Rehearing Request to Change Existing MISO Generator Interconnection Procedures

On November 9, 2017, FERC issued an order conditionally accepting proposed revisions to Attachment AE of the Southwest Power Pool, Inc. (“SPP”) Open Access Transmission Tariff (“Tariff”).  SPP’s proposed Tariff revisions modify SPP’s so-called “scarcity pricing” methodology in response to FERC Order No. 825.  Under this newly-approved methodology, SPP will institute variable demand curves that will more accurately reflect the value of resources during times of shortages, thereby reducing price signal distortions that can reduce incentives for resources to respond to dispatch signals.  In its order conditionally accepting the Tariff revisions, FERC directed SPP to make a compliance filing to show that certain provisions be placed in SPP’s Tariff as opposed to its Marketplace Protocols.
Continue Reading FERC Conditionally Accepts SPP Tariff Revisions to Implement Contingency and Regulation Reserve Demand Curves

On October 31, 2017, FERC accepted proposed revisions to the ISO New England, Inc. (“ISO-NE”) Transmission, Markets and Services Tariff (“Tariff”) to incorporate a methodology for interconnection request cluster studies, which were filed by ISO-NE, the New England Power Pool Participants Committee, and the Participating Transmission Owners Administrative Committee on behalf of the Participating Transmission Owners (collectively, the “Filing Parties”).  Under the new revisions, which became effective on November 1, 2017, interconnection requests for resources located in the same electrical part of the ISO-NE system and that meet certain other criteria, will be studied together, as opposed to individually.  As part of the stakeholder discussions preceding the filing, ISO-NE developed a strategic infrastructure study to identify the transmission upgrades needed to interconnect remotely-located wind resources in Maine, which will serve as the first cluster study to proceed under the newly-accepted methodology.
Continue Reading FERC Accepts ISO-NE Methodology for Interconnection Cluster Studies

On October 23, 2017, FERC approved San Diego Gas & Electric Company’s (“SDG&E”) and Sempra Gas & Power Marketing, LLC’s (“Sempra”; collectively, “Applicants”) request for authorization for SDG&E to purchase Resource Adequacy capacity at market-based rates from its affiliate, Sempra, pursuant to a competitive solicitation process.  In doing so, FERC concluded that the solicitation did not unduly favor Sempra and thus satisfied FERC’s concerns regarding affiliate abuse.
Continue Reading FERC Approves Affiliate Transaction Between SDG&E and Sempra

On October 19, 2017, FERC ordered Southwest Power Pool, Inc. (“SPP”) to revise its Open Access Transmission Tariff (“OATT”) to provide that network customers with service subject to redispatch can only obtain Auction Revenue Rights (“ARRs”) and Long-Term Congestion Rights (“LTCRs”) for those times and in the amounts that service can be provided without redispatch.
Continue Reading FERC Directs SPP to Change Eligibility for Certain Transmission Rights