Jill Drum

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On May 22, 2025, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit (“Fifth Circuit”) addressed a dispute between ANR Pipeline Company (“ANR”) and FERC. The case centered on the interpretation of ANR’s tariff and whether it required shippers to deliver and take gas simultaneously, even for short-notice shipments. The Fifth Circuit denied ANR Pipeline Company’s petition for review, affirming FERC’s decision that ANR’s tariff did not require simultaneous delivery for short-notice shipments. The court found the tariff ambiguous and emphasized ANR’s longstanding practice of not requiring simultaneous delivery, which supported FERC’s position.

On May 14, 2025, FERC accepted Southwest Power Pool, Inc.’s (“SPP”) proposed revisions to its Open Access Transmission Tariff (“OATT”) to modify its high priority transmission study planning process. SPP argued these changes will allow transmission studies to better address transmission issues identified by stakeholders by expanding the scope of such studies to allow for considerations beyond economic benefits and costs, such as short-circuit and dynamic stability. FERC accepted the proposed OATT revisions as just and reasonable, finding the revised process to satisfy the goals of FERC Order No. 890 and allow SPP’s studies to address the specific needs of stakeholders.

On April 29, 2025, FERC partially granted rehearing in the case of Cometa Energia, S.A. de C.V. (“Saavi”) against the California Independent System Operator Corporation (“CAISO”), finding a provision of CAISO’s Business Practice Manual for Reliability Requirements (“Business Practice Manual”) must be included in CAISO’s tariff under the “rule of reason,” as the provision significantly impacts rates and services. In its underlying complaint, Saavi argued that CAISO unlawfully terminated the deliverability status of its 181.5 megawatt generating unit (“Project”). In its rehearing order, FERC agreed that under the “rule of reason” CAISO should have reflected the deliverability status provision of its Business Practice Manual in its tariff, but FERC declined to reinstate the Project’s deliverability status citing concerns over reduced resource adequacy for other generating units.

On April 10, 2025, FERC addressed arguments on rehearing that clarified, but did not modify the outcome of, a November 1, 2024, order (“Rejection Order”) rejecting PJM Interconnection, L.L.C.’s (“PJM”) proposal to increase the co-located data center load at a Susquehanna Nuclear, LLC (“Susquehanna”) nuclear generating facility. FERC again found that PJM’s amended Interconnection Service Agreement’s (“ISA”) non-conforming provisions were not necessary deviations from the pro forma ISA. However, FERC did clarify that the Rejection Order did not prevent other entities from filing non-conforming ISAs to address issues relating to co-located data center load.

On March 31, 2025, FERC granted in part and denied in part Basin Electric Power Cooperative’s (Basin Electric) petition for declaratory order seeking transmission incentives for the Roundup-Kummer Ridge Project, the Tande-Finstad-Leland Olds Project (LOS-Tande Project), and the NE Williston-Folvag 115 kV-Judson-East Fork-Tande Project (Springbrook Project) (collectively, “Projects”). FERC granted the Hypothetical Capital Structure Incentive and the Abandoned Plant Incentive to both the LOS-Tande Project and Springbrook Project, but denied the Hypothetical Capital Structure Incentive for the Roundup-Kummer Ridge Project.

On March 20, 2025, FERC denied Ponderosa Power, LLC’s (“Ponderosa”) complaint alleging that NorthWestern Corporation’s (“NorthWestern”) application of its large generator interconnection procedures (“LGIP”) was unjust and unreasonable or unduly discriminatory or preferential. The dispute centered around NorthWestern’s requirement for Ponderosa to fund approximately $23 million in network upgrades to accommodate the interconnection of its 70 MW wind-powered generation facility located in Musselshell County, Montana (“Project”).

On February 20, 2025, FERC found that the PJM Interconnection, L.L.C. (“PJM”) Open Access Transmission Tariff (“OATT”) appears to be unjust and unreasonable because it does not address with clarity or consistency the rates, terms, and conditions of service that apply to co-location arrangements and therefore directed PJM to show cause as to why the OATT, the Amended and Restated Operating Agreement of PJM, and Reliability Assurance Agreement Among Load Serving Entities in the PJM region (collectively, “Tariffs”) are just and reasonable or explain what changes to the Tariffs would remedy FERC’s concerns regarding co-location arrangements.  In a separate order issued on February 20, 2025, FERC also rejected a proposal from certain Exelon transmission-owning utilities (“Exelon Companies”) to revise their transmission rate schedules attached to the PJM OATT to clarify that co-located load that is synchronized to the grid must be designated as network load or receive point-to-point transmission service.

On January 24, 2025, FERC withdrew its 2022 draft Greenhouse Gas (“GHG”) Policy Statement and terminated the associated proceeding. FERC determined that, after reviewing the entire record, issues concerning GHG emissions are better analyzed on a case-by-case basis when raised by parties in proceedings. Commissioners Phillips, Rosner, and Chang issued a joint concurrence noting that, although FERC is withdrawing its draft GHG Policy Statement, FERC still considers GHG emissions under its National Environmental Policy Act (“NEPA”) analysis and balances project benefits with potential adverse consequences under the Natural Gas Act (“NGA”).

On August 20, 2024, the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (“FERC”) issued an order rejecting, without prejudice, a contested proposal from Basin Electric Power Cooperative (“Basin”) to establish special wholesale power sales rate schedules for cryptocurrency (“crypto”) operations and other new large loads.  While FERC expressed sympathy for Basin’s concerns regarding its ability to serve expected load growth reliably and economically, FERC found that Basin failed to justify its proposal to treat crypto currency mining loads differently from other large loads and therefore rejected the differential rate proposal.