On April 10, 2020, FERC consolidated two separate dockets resulting from PJM Interconnection, L.L.C.’s (“PJM”) Order No. 841 compliance proceeding, and established paper hearing procedures to examine PJM’s methodology for calculating capacity values—not just for Electric Storage Resources (“ESRs”) participating in its capacity markets, but for all resource types, including run-of-river hydroelectric resources with and without reservoir storage capability. However, FERC held the proceedings in abeyance through October 30, 2020 to permit PJM and its stakeholders time to consider replacing the current capacity value calculation methodology with a new, Effective Load Carrying Capability (“ELCC”) approach. FERC concluded that the October 30 deadline would provide sufficient time to consider the new approach, while also allowing for new rules to become effective in advance of PJM’s next capacity auction. Commissioner Richard Glick issued partial dissent, explaining that he would have held the proceedings in abeyance until January 29, 2021.
FERC Accepts PJM Plan to Review and Analyze Binding Cost Commitments in its RTEP
On March 20, 2020, FERC issued an order accepting PJM Interconnection, L.L.C.’s (“PJM”) proposal as part of its Regional Transmission Expansion Plan (“RTEP”) to allow project developers to submit binding cost commitments on a voluntary basis, and to undertake a comparative review and analysis of these commitments in selecting transmission projects. FERC accepted PJM’s proposal over the objections of certain PJM transmission owners, and concluded that the proposal would assist PJM in selecting the most efficient and cost-effective transmission solutions in its RTEP while providing greater transparency into PJM’s evaluation process.
FERC Issues Notice on Commission Operations During COVID-19 Emergency
On Thursday, March 19, in lieu of its monthly Commission meeting, FERC issued a Notice regarding its response to the Novel Coronavirus Disease (“COVID-19”) and the President’s March 13 declaration of a National Emergency. Chairman Neil Chatterjee delivered comments about the Notice and the Commission’s operations in the coming weeks and months.
FERC Reversal Rejects ISO-NE Proposal for Calculating De-List Bids
On March 10, 2020, FERC granted rehearing of its November 9, 2018 order that accepted revisions to ISO New England Inc.’s (“ISO-NE”) Tariff modifying the calculation of the economic life of existing capacity resources seeking to retire or permanently leave the ISO-NE capacity market, to better reflect competitive market behavior. FERC determined the benefits of the Tariff revisions did not outweigh the disruption to capacity market participants’ settled expectations and, therefore rejected the economic life revisions in their entirety, effective August 10, 2018, and declined to rerun any Forward Capacity Auctions (“FCA”) to preserve market certainty.
FERC Grants Extension of Hydropower License Terms
On Monday, March 2, FERC staff issued three virtually identical orders extending the license terms for 20 hydroelectric projects along the Wisconsin River that have licenses set to expire between 2026 and 2035, to align their license expiration dates and better coordinate the FERC relicensing process. The three orders each address licenses for projects located in certain sub-basins of the Wisconsin River: the northern sub-basin, which includes eight projects; the central sub-basin, which includes 10 projects, and the southern sub-basin, which includes two projects.
FERC Accepts ISO-NE’s Informational Filing Regarding FCA 14
On February 21, 2020, FERC issued an order accepting ISO New England Inc.’s (“ISO-NE”) November 5, 2019 informational filing about the parameters of its fourteenth Forward Capacity Auction (“FCA 14”) for the 2023-24 Capacity Commitment Period (“Informational Filing”). In so doing, FERC rejected arguments from ISO-NE’s External Market Monitor and others that ISO-NE over-mitigated the bids of various energy storage resources by relying on improper assumptions and historical data. FERC’s order sparked a dissent from Commissioner Richard Glick.
FERC Denies DER Projects’ Request to Participate in ISO-NE Capacity Auction, Sparking Dissent from Commissioner Glick
On February 5, 2020, FERC denied a request from demand-side energy management company Enerwise Global Technologies, Inc. d/b/a CPower (“CPower”) for a one-time waiver of ISO New England, Inc’s (“ISO-NE”) Market Rule 1 in order to permit CPower’s summer-only demand capacity distributed generation resources, for which it elected Renewable Technology Resource (“RTR”) treatment, to participate in ISO-NE’s fourteenth Forward Capacity Auction (“FCA 14”) and the substitution auction. CPower presented two alternative options for waiver, arguing that an unintended interaction between ISO-NE’s RTR and “composite offer” Tariff provisions caused its resources to be excluded from FCA 14 and the substitution auction. FERC denied CPower’s request, even though ISO-NE supported one of the alternatives that CPower presented. Commissioner Richard Glick dissented in part, explaining that he also would have granted one of CPower’s proffered waiver options.
House Democrats Express Concern over FERC’s PJM MOPR Order
On January 29, 2020, thirty-six Democratic members of the U.S. House of Representatives (“Representatives”) signed a letter expressing their concern about FERC’s December 19, 2019 Order (“Order”) directing PJM Interconnection, L.L.C (“PJM”) to apply its Minimum Offer Price Rule (“MOPR”) to all state-subsidized capacity resources (see December 20, 2019 edition of the WER). According to the Representatives, the Order “nullif[ies]” state energy preferences, prohibits states from pursuing their policy goals, increases consumer costs by forcing them to buy duplicative capacity, runs contrary to FERC’s duty to ensure energy markets are truly competitive, and places deregulated markets at risk. The Representatives requested that the Commission provide a response to each concern discussed in the letter.
House Energy and Commerce Committee’s Draft “CLEAN Future Act” Includes Hydropower Provisions
On Tuesday, January 28, Democratic leadership from the House Energy and Commerce Committee, and Environment and Climate Change and Energy Subcommittees released legislative text of the draft “Climate Leadership and Environmental Action for our Nation’s (“CLEAN”) Future Act, which aims for the United States to achieve a “100 percent clean economy” no later than 2050.
FERC Holds PJM Fast-Starting Pricing Proceeding in Abeyance
On January 23, 2020, FERC concluded that a “pricing and dispatch mismatch problem” needs to be resolved before PJM Interconnection, L.L.C. (“PJM”) can revise the fast-start provisions in its Tariff, as previously directed by FERC on April 18, 2019. Because PJM currently has a stakeholder process addressing the pricing and dispatch mismatch, FERC placed PJM’s fast-start pricing filing in abeyance until July 31, 2020 to allow PJM and its stakeholders the opportunity to fully consider any necessary changes.