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On January 24, 2014, the United States Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit (“Fourth Circuit”) published an opinion upholding FERC’s decision to grant incentive-based rate treatment to Virginia Electric Power Company (“VEPCO”) to spur investment in transmission infrastructure.  The North Carolina Utilities Commission (“NCUC”) argued that FERC violated section 219 of the Federal Power Act (“FPA”) and abused its discretion by granting incentives to five of VEPCO’s facilities and by denying NCUC’s petition for rehearing.

On January 28, 2014, FERC announced that it will hold a technical conference to discuss local deliverability zones within the New York Independent System Operator, Inc.’s (“NYISO”) installed capacity market.  Specifically, the Commission will explore how the Long Island area (referred to as “Load Zone K”) should be modeled in future capacity (“ICAP”) auctions.

On January 22, 2014, FERC held a technical conference addressing revisions to its electronic quarterly report (“EQR”) process.  During the conference, a FERC staff member commented that the filing window for third quarter (“Q3”) 2013 EQRs, which had been indefinitely delayed from October 31, 2013, could open March 1, with a deadline of March 31, although the date must be approved by the Commission.

On January 17, 2014, FERC granted PJM Interconnection, L.L.C (“PJM”) a temporary waiver of certain provisions of PJM’s Amended and Restated Operating Agreement (“Operating Agreement”) to share non-public, operational information with natural gas pipelines in the PJM region.  The temporary waiver of information sharing provisions of PJM’s Operating Agreement is effective until the earlier of PJM’s effective date of implementing FERC’s Order No. 787 tariff revisions or March 31, 2014.

On January 16, 2014, FERC issued a final rule approving the North American Electric Reliability Corporation (“NERC”) proposed Reliability Standard BAL-003-1 pertaining to Frequency Response and Frequency Bias Setting.  This standard directs “the amount of frequency response needed from balancing authorities to maintain interconnection frequency within defined bounds and includes requirements for the measurement and provision of frequency response.” 

On January 9, 2014, the White House released a Presidential Memorandum directing the heads of executive departments and agencies to form the Quadrennial Energy Review Task Force (“Task Force”) to develop an integrated report every four years addressing energy challenges in the United States.  President Obama hopes that the Task Force will help form a comprehensive, coordinated strategy to ensure affordable, clean, and secure energy and energy services to improve productivity, quality of life, environmental protection, and security.

On January 16, 2014, FERC proposed to approve the North American Electric Reliability Corporation’s (“NERC”) Reliability Standard for Geomagnetic Disturbances (“GMDs”).  In its proposal, FERC stated that Reliability Standard EOP-010-1 (Geomagnetic Disturbance Operations) is designed to mitigate the effects of GMDs on the Bulk-Power System.   NERC developed the Reliability Standard in response to directives in FERC’s Order No. 779.

On January 15, 2014, FERC issued an Order Approving Stipulation and Consent Agreement (“Settlement”) between the Office of Enforcement (“Enforcement”), Erie Boulevard Hydropower, L.P. (“Erie”), and Brookfield Power US Assets Management, LLC (“BPAM”) related to Erie’s operation of the Varick Development of the Oswego River Project in light of the death of two fishermen nearby the project in 2010.  Enforcement concluded that Erie violated its license and Part 12 of FERC’s regulations, which governs hydropower public safety.