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On September 19, 2013, FERC issued Order No. 764-B, further clarifying its Integration of Variable Energy Resources (“VER”) rule originally established in Order No. 764.  Powerex Corporation (“Powerex”) and Iberdrola Renewables, LLC (“Iberdrola Renewables”) had sought clarification, or in the alternative rehearing, of issues related to e-Tagging and the Bonneville Power Administration’s (“Bonneville”) practice of curtailments pursuant to its Dispatcher Standing Order (“DSO”) 216 protocol. 

On September 13, 2013, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit (“Federal Circuit”) held that the Department of Interior (“Interior”) breached its 2006 precedent agreement (“Precedent Agreement”) with Rockies Express Pipeline LLC (“Rockies Express”) after the Interior refused to sign a related transportation agreement with Rockies Express.  The case involved a series of contracts between Rockies Express and a unit of the Interior – Minerals Management Service – that included Royalty-in-Kind (“RIK”) provisions, all of which allowed the Interior to ship natural gas that Rockies Express extracted from nearby federal land.

On September 13, 2013, the Tennessee Valley Authority (“TVA”) announced the members of the new Regional Energy Resource Council (“RERC”).  The RERC is an advisory board that consists of 19 members and is designed to advise TVA on current and future energy activities.  Pursuant to the Federal Advisory Committee Act, the TVA Board of Directors established the RERC during its April 2013 meeting.  The RERC includes citizens of all TVA states and members from both the public and private sectors.

On September 12, 2013, FERC issued an order (“September 12 Order”) granting in part and denying in part requests for clarification filed by Puget Sound Energy, Inc. (“Puget”) and Powerex Corporation (“Powerex”) of a May 20, 2013 order (“May 20 Order”) accepting for filing certain non-conforming service agreements for conditional firm point-to-point transmission service executed between Puget and Morgan Stanley Capital Group, Inc. (“Morgan Stanley”).

On Thursday, September 5, 2013, FERC granted eBay Inc. (“eBay”) market-based rate authority, effective August 26, 2013.  eBay is developing an approximately 6 MW fuel cell generation facility at its South Jordan, Utah data center.  While the facility will primarily be used to provide onsite power for the data center, eBay sought blanket authority to sell any excess energy that is produced.

On September 3, 2013, FERC approved proposed revisions by the North American Electric Reliability Corporation (“NERC”) to simplify its process for exempting companies from compliance with Critical Infrastructure Protection (“CIP”) reliability standards.  According to NERC, the new process will operate more efficiently by streamlining the processes for submission, review, acceptance or rejection, and modification of previously accepted Technical Feasibility Exceptions (“TFE”).

On Monday, August 29, 2013 FERC issued three civil penalty orders after concluding that three separate entities manipulated ISO New England, Inc.’s (“ISO-NE”) Day-Ahead Load Response Program (“DALRP”).  Specifically, FERC found that Lincoln Paper and Tissue, LLC (“Lincoln”), Competitive Energy Service, LLC (“CES”), and CES’s managing member Dr. Richard Silkman (“Silkman”) each violated FERC’s Prohibition on Market Manipulation by creating phantom load reductions in order to defraud ISO-NE of demand response payments.

On August 29, 2013, the Department of Energy (“DOE”) issued a request for information (“RFI”), seeking comments on its draft Integrated, Interagency Pre-Application (“IIP”) process.  This IIP process is aimed at establishing a “coordinated series of meetings and other actions” before a federal agency would accept a high-voltage transmission line application or take other action to trigger federal review.

On Thursday, July 18, 2013, FERC issued Order No. 784, the final rule on third-party provision of ancillary services and the accounting and financial reporting for new electric storage facilities (“Final Rule”).  FERC stated that the Final Rule, which will revise its regulations to reform its “Avista” policy, will provide additional rate flexibility for purchasers and sellers of ancillary services and increase transparency and competition in ancillary services markets.  Specifically, FERC has provided new means by which sellers can demonstrate a lack of market power in third-party sales of ancillary services in order to obtain expanded market-based rate authority for sales of such services.