Troutman Pepper Locke

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On June 22, 2012, FERC released a final rule in the Integration of Variable Energy Resources (“VER”) rulemaking proceeding.  With the stated goal of removing barriers to VER integration, the final rule provides transmission customers the option of adjusting their transmission schedules at 15-minute intervals, and it requires VER generators to provide transmission owners with certain data on meteorological and forced outages in order to support power production forecasting.

On June 14, 2012, GenOn Energy Management, LLC and GenOn Kendall, LLC (collectively, “GenOn”) filed a pleading with FERC arguing that GenOn’s Kendall plant in Massachusetts may be forced to choose between violating the Clean Water Act (“CWA”) or violating the ISO-New England, Inc. (“ISO-NE”) tariff provisions on reliability.  GenOn filed comments on ISO-NE’s forward capacity auction results highlighting what it argues is an ongoing tension between environmental compliance and reliability rules.

At the open meeting on June 21, 2012, FERC announced the issuance of multiple Notice of Public Rulemakings (“NOPR”) pertaining to: (1) changes to policies governing the sale of ancillary services; (2) changes to the definition of the “bulk electric system;” and (3) revisions to filing requirements for Electric Quarterly Reports (“EQR”).

On June 11, 2012, FERC conditionally approved the Midwest Independent Transmission System Operator’s (“MISO”) proposed changes to the resource adequacy provisions of its tariff. FERC conditionally approved a controversial capacity market design, but ordered some significant changes to MISO’s proposal that differ from capacity markets in place in eastern RTOs.

On June 11, 2012, FERC submitted a brief to the United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit (“D.C. Circuit”) in defense of its authority to impose a $30 million civil penalty on former gas trader Brian Hunter.  The case is before the court on a petition for review of FERC’s penalty order in the Hunter case and pits FERC against not only Hunter, but the Commodities Futures Trading Commission (“CFTC”), which argued to the court that FERC lacked jurisdiction to fine the trader.

On June 1, 2012, the United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit (“DC Circuit”) held in National Association of Regulatory Utility Commissioners v. United States Department of Energy that the Secretary of Energy (“Secretary”) failed to perform a valid evaluation of annual fees collected from generators for disposal of nuclear waste under the 1982 Nuclear Waste Policy Act (the “Act”).  The DC Circuit ordered the Secretary to conduct a re-evaluation of the annual fees within six months, but stopped short of ordering the fees suspended. 

On June 14, 2012 the Commission accepted the tariff filing of Iroquois Gas Transmission System, L.P. (“Iroquois”) specifying the priority rules that should apply to Iroquois’ transportation and other services for initial scheduling purposes and in the event of a constraint at either a receipt or a delivery point or along the transportation path. 

On June 15, 2012, FERC and the Nuclear Regulatory Commission (“NRC”) held a joint meeting on grid reliability at FERC.  The meeting was in furtherance of a Memorandum of Agreement (“MOA”) (see September 11, 2009 edition of the  WER) between the two agencies to facilitate interactions about matters of mutual interest relating to the bulk power system.