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On May 20, 2021, FERC issued two orders in which it authorized two pipeline companies to construct and abandon certain pipeline facilities, subject to conditions. In an exciting and sometimes tense Commission open-meeting, the Commission ultimately approved Northern Natural Gas Company’s (“Northern”) application to construct and operate certain pipeline compression and auxiliary facilities and abandon short segments of existing pipeline (“2021 Expansion Project”) in Minnesota.
Continue Reading FERC Approves Pipeline Certificates with Last Minute Amendment Caveating GHG NEPA Analysis as “Information Only”

On April 30, 2021, FERC accepted the California Independent System Operator Corporation’s (“CAISO”) submission of two proposals to revise its Tariff to amend provisions for its Energy Imbalance Market (“EIM”). In its first set of EIM enhancements, CAISO proposed to require EIM participants to settle deviations in their base schedules through CAISO’s market at a common location and price, eliminating EIM participants’ option to settle deviations in their base schedules bilaterally. In its second set of EIM enhancements, CAISO proposed to allow EIM participants the option not to have CAISO settle unaccounted for energy within an EIM participant’s balancing authority area (“BAA”), which results in a charge or credit to the affected EIM entity and can cause potential cost shifting in an EIM entity’s unaccounted for energy settlement. FERC accepted CAISO’s first proposal to be effective May 1, 2021, and the second set to be effective October 1, 2021.
Continue Reading FERC Accepts Proposed Enhancements to CAISO Energy Imbalance Market

On April 15, 2021, FERC issued a long-awaited policy statement providing guidance on incorporating state-determined carbon pricing into organized markets operated by Regional Transmission Organizations (“RTOs”) and Independent System Operators (“ISOs”). The non-binding policy statement explains how FERC will review and consider rate filings submitted under section 205 of the Federal Power Act (“FPA”) to establish market rules for incorporating state-determined carbon pricing into RTOs and ISOs.
Continue Reading FERC Issues Policy Statement on Carbon Pricing in Organized Wholesale Electric Markets

On March 22, 2021, FERC, for the first time, assessed the significance of a proposed natural gas pipeline project’s greenhouse gas emissions (“GHGs”) and their contribution to climate change when it approved Northern Natural Gas Company’s (“Northern”) South Sioux City to Sioux Falls A-line Replacement project (“Project”). As proposed, Northern will abandon in-place certain pipeline facilities in Nebraska and South Dakota, construct and operate approximately 87.3 miles of replacement pipeline, and modify existing and install new above-ground facilities. While all five FERC Commissioners agreed to approve the Project, both Commissioner Danly and Commissioner Christie dissented from FERC’s decision to determine the significance of GHGs in an individual pipeline proceeding.
Continue Reading FERC Changes Course, Considers Pipeline’s GHGs Significance and Climate Impacts

FERC is hosting a number of workshops and technical conferences over the next several months. These include the Resource Adequacy technical conference; Listening Tour for the Office of Public Participation; workshop on compliance with Order No. 860; conference on Electrification and the Grid; and a technical conference on the threats climate change poses to the grid.  Read on for more information about each.
Continue Reading Upcoming FERC Workshops and Technical Conferences

On February 18, 2021, FERC denied a rehearing request for an order it issued in October of 2020 that stated that payments received under the Commercial System Distribution Load Relief Programs (“CSRPs”) may not be excluded from the offer floors for Special Case Resources’ (“SCR”) calculation under the New York Independent System Operator, Inc.’s (“NYISO”) buyer-side market power mitigation (“BSM”) rules. Although FERC denied the request for rehearing, FERC modified and set aside the October 2020 Order in part, finding that the identified CSRPs should be excluded from the calculation of SCR offer floors in NYISO. Commissioners Clements and Christie issued concurring opinions.
Continue Reading FERC Exempts Certain Demand Response Programs from NYISO’s Buyer-Side Market Power Mitigation Rules

On January 19, 2021 FERC issued an order on the North American Electric Reliability Corporation’s (“NERC”) compliance filings submitted pursuant to the Commission’s January 2020 order on NERC’s five-year performance assessment. FERC’s January 19 order approved NERC’s proposed modifications to its Rules of Procedure regarding: (1) Electricity Information Sharing and Analysis Center (“E-ISAC”); (2) Sanction

On December 17, 2020, FERC issued a final rule permitting Solid Oxide Fuel Cell systems with integrated natural gas reformation equipment to be certified as cogeneration qualifying facilities (“QFs”) under the Public Utility Regulatory Policies Act of 1978 (“PURPA”).  The Final Rule follows FERC’s October 15, 2020 Notice of Proposed Rulemaking (“NOPR”) (see October 21, 2020 edition of the WER), and addresses the comments received in response to the NOPR.  While the NOPR would have limited the type of eligible fuel cells to only solid oxide fuel cells, the Final Rule modified the definition of “useful thermal energy” in section 292.202(h) of FERC’s regulations to include all fuel cells that use waste heat in an integrated fuel reforming process.
Continue Reading FERC Finalizes Rule Permitting Fuel Cell Systems to Qualify as Cogeneration QFs

On December 4, 2020, the U.S. Department of Energy (“DOE”) issued a final rule updating its National Environmental Policy Act (“NEPA”) implementing regulations regarding applications to import to, or export from, liquid natural gas (“LNG”) terminals. The final rule follows DOE’s May 1, 2020 Notice of Proposed Rulemaking (“NOPR”) (see May 22, 2020 edition of the WER). In the preamble to the final rule, DOE explained that the objective of the revision is to improve the efficiency of DOE’s decision-making process through saving time and expense associated with NEPA compliance and eliminating unnecessary environmental documentation.
Continue Reading DOE Updates NEPA Procedures on Authorizations Issued Under NGA

On November 19, 2020, FERC issued Order No. 872-A, an order denying rehearing and clarifying portions of Order No. 872, which revised the regulations implementing the Public Utility Regulatory Policies Act of 1978 (“PURPA”). In Order No. 872-A, FERC affirmed its previous PURPA regulation amendments in Order No. 872, but provided further explanation regarding six key reforms: (1) states’ use of tiered avoided cost pricing; (2) states’ use of variable energy rates in qualifying facility (“QF”) contracts and availability of utility avoided cost data; (3) the role of independent entities overseeing competitive solicitations that set avoided cost rates; (4) the circumstances under which a small power production QF needs to recertify; (5) the application of the rebuttable presumption of separate sites for the purpose of determining the power production capacity of small power production facilities; and (6) the PURPA section 210(m) rebuttable presumption of nondiscriminatory access to markets and accompanying regulatory text.
Continue Reading FERC Denies Rehearing, But Clarifies Various Aspects of the New PURPA Rules