S. Jennifer Panahi

Subscribe to S. Jennifer Panahi's Posts

On July 7, 2023, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit (“D.C. Circuit”) issued an opinion rejecting petitioner Hecate Energy Green County 3 LLC’s (“Hecate”) claim that the New York Independent System Operator (“NYISO”) tariff did not contain sufficient detail to put it on notice that NYISO would assess network upgrade costs resulting from non-jurisdictional projects.  Instead, the Court agreed with FERC that because its tariff gave “fair notice,” NYISO “had not impermissibly adopted a practice that was not in its tariff.”

On June 15, 2023, FERC issued Order No. 895, adopting new regulations permitting regional transmission organizations (“RTO”) and independent system operators (“ISO”) to share, amongst each other, credit-related information of their market participants, and requiring RTOs/ISOs to adopt tariff or similar rules for providing credit-related information sharing in order to better assess market participants’ credit risks.

On May 16, 2023, the United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit (“D.C. Circuit”) issued an opinion in Center for Biological Diversity v. Alaska Gasline Development Corporation, affirming FERC’s authorization for Alaska Gasline Development Corporation (“AGDC”) to construct and operate liquified natural gas (“LNG”) facilities in Alaska’s North Slope region (“Project”).

On February 21, 2023, FERC accepted PJM Interconnection, L.L.C.’s (“PJM”) proposed tariff revisions governing the Locational Deliverability Area Reliability Requirement (“LDA Reliability Requirement”) calculation, effective December 24, 2022, and applicable to the 2024/2025 Base Residual Auction (“BRA”), which was in progress at the time that PJM submitted its filing. Specifically, FERC accepted tariff changes that would allow PJM, during the BRA process, to exclude Planned Generation Capacity Resources from the LDA Reliability Requirement calculation if the addition of such resources materially increases the reliability requirement and such resources do not participate in the capacity auction. The February 21 Order also dismissed as moot a complaint filed by PJM challenging the justness and reasonableness of the existing LDA Reliability Requirement. Finally, the February 21 Order stated that FERC would soon convene a forum to examine the functioning of the PJM capacity market. Commissioner Danly issued a separate dissenting statement.

On January 31, 2023, the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (“Commission” or “FERC”) granted Great River Energy’s (“GRE”) requested incentive rate treatment for GRE’s investment in the Iron Range Project and Big Stone Project (collectively, “Projects”). Notwithstanding FERC’s approval, Commissioner Christie’s separate concurrence highlighted persistent concerns over the Commission’s incentive rate treatment policy.

On December 15, 2022, FERC issued a Notice of Proposed Rulemaking (“NOPR”) seeking to revise its regulations governing applications for permits to site electric transmission facilities under § 216 of the Federal Power Act (“FPA”). Specifically, the NOPR seeks to: (1) revise Section 50.6 of FERC’s regulations to reflect the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act’s (“IIJA”) amendments to the FPA § 216; (2) eliminate the required one-year delay before the commencement of FERC’s pre-filing process; (3) supplement the existing landowner and stakeholder participation provisions in Part 50 of its regulations; and (4) revise the timing of the required Project Participation Plan (“Plan”) in the pre-filing application process.

On November 29, 2022, FERC conditionally accepted PJM Interconnection, L.L.C.’s (“PJM”) tariff revisions to transition from a serial first-come, first-served generator interconnection queue process to a first-ready, first-served clustered cycle approach. FERC found that the revisions will help reduce interconnection queue backlogs and delays.

On November 17, 2022, FERC issued three orders intended to address the reliability impacts of the rapid integration of inverter-based resources (“IBRs”), including solar, wind, fuel cell, and battery storage resources, on the Bulk-Power System (“BPS”). Specifically, in the first proceeding, FERC directed the North American Electric Reliability Corporation (“NERC”) to develop a plan to register the entities that own and operate IBRs so that NERC may monitor their compliance with NERC’s Reliability Standards. In the second proceeding, FERC issued a Notice of Proposed Rulemaking (“NOPR”) to direct NERC to develop new or modified Reliability Standards that address reliability gaps related to IBRs. Lastly, in the final proceeding, FERC approved revisions to two of NERC’s Reliability Standards.

On October 28, 2022, FERC conditionally accepted Southwest Power Pool, Inc.’s (“SPP”) region-wide transmission cost allocation proposal. The revisions alter Attachment J of SPP’s Open Access Transmission Tariff (“Tariff”) and establish a waiver process through which, on a case-by-case basis, entities may request the costs of a specific transmission facility with a voltage level between 100 kV and 300 kV (“Byway Facility”) to be fully allocated to the SPP region on a postage-stamp basis—i.e., pursuant to a uniform regional rate. Commissioners James Danly and Mark Christie each dissented, respectively arguing that the revisions provide SPP too much discretion to allocate Byway Facilities on a regionwide basis and that the record did not show strong consensus among SPP states for the change in cost allocation.