Troutman Pepper Locke

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On March 7, 2014, FERC ordered the North American Electric Reliability Corporation (“NERC”) to establish Reliability Standards for the physical protection of the Bulk-Power System.  The Reliability Standards will require certain owners or operators of facilities critical to the operation of the Bulk-Power System to identify such facilities and develop and implement plans for the physical protection of those facilities.  FERC directed NERC to submit the proposed Reliability Standards to FERC for approval within 90 days of the order.

On March 14, 2014, FERC issued two related orders on fuel cost recovery in the California Independent System Operator Corporation’s (“CAISO”) markets.  In the first order, FERC granted the CAISO’s petition for a limited tariff waiver allowing generators to recover increased natural gas costs.  The second order rejected a competing proposal from California generators.

On March 5, 2014, FERC and the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (“CFTC”) announced the creation of a staff-level Interagency Surveillance and Data Analytics Working Group.  This new working group will focus on data security, data sharing infrastructure, and the use of analytical tools for regulatory purposes, all of which is intended to help FERC and the CFTC coordinate the sharing of information between the two agencies. 

On March 4, 2014, FERC announced an upcoming technical conference on the recent revisions to the Electric Quarterly Report (“EQR”) filing process.  At the technical conference FERC staff will demonstrate and discuss the two new options for filing EQRs before the system goes “live” and public and non-public utilities are required to file their EQRs,  in accordance with FERC’s revised deadlines (see March 3, 2014 edition of the WER).

On March 4, 2014, FERC announced a procedural practice change regarding filings during weather-related closures of Washington, D.C.-based federal government offices.  Effective March 7, 2014, FERC announced that it will no longer accept filings, either in person or online, when the Office of Personnel closes the federal government in Washington, D.C. for weather-related events.  FERC will resume accepting submissions upon the reopening of the federal government in Washington, D.C.

On February 28, 2014, the Commission issued an order setting the deadlines for all public and non-public utilities to file Electric Quarterly Reports (“EQRs”) for the third quarter (“Q3”) and fourth quarter (“Q4”) of 2013, and for the first quarter (“Q1”) of 2014.   The Commission’s February 28th order follows a January 22, 2014 technical conference held by FERC to discuss revisions to the EQR process (see January 27, 2014 edition of the WER).

On Monday, February 24, 2014, the Supreme Court of the United States (“Supreme Court”) denied a petition for certiorari challenging a United States Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit (“Seventh Circuit”) decision that upheld a FERC order approving the Midcontinent Independent System Operator, Inc.’s (“MISO”) cost allocation methodology for multi-value projects (“MVPs”). 

On February 21, 2014, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit (“D.C. Circuit”) vacated and remanded a FERC gas storage order for failure to offer a reasoned basis for its decision.  The D.C. Circuit held that FERC acted arbitrarily and capriciously when it ordered that new natural gas storage customers pay for replenishing base gas via incremental rates, rather than spreading the costs amongst all customers through rolled-in rates.

On February 21, 2014, FERC announced that it will hold a technical conference on the “Winter 2013-2014 Operations and Market Performance in Regional Transmission Organizations and Independent System Operators.”  Through the technical conference, FERC intends to examine the impacts of cold weather events that occurred this winter and actions taken to address these impacts.  The technical conference will be held on April 1, 2014 from 9:00 am to 5:00 pm and led by FERC Staff.