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On March 31, 2016 the North American Electric Reliability Corporation (“NERC”) submitted to the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (“FERC” or the “Commission”) the 2016 NERC Standards Report, Status and Timetable for Addressing Regulatory Directives (the “Report”). The Report was submitted in compliance with NERC’s requirement to submit an annual report detailing the status and timetable for addressing outstanding regulatory directives on or before March 31 of each year.

On March 29, 2016, FERC granted in part and denied in part a complaint filed by a group of merchant generators (the “Internal MISO Generation”) against the Midcontinent Independent System Operator, Inc. (“MISO”) which challenged, among other things, MISO’s protocol for providing network resource interconnection service (“NRIS”) delivery product to generators external to MISO that want to participate in MISO’s capacity and energy markets, without requiring the external generators to make an “M2 Milestone Payment.” The M2 Milestone Payment is a payment that certain classes of interconnection customers entering the final phase of MISO’s interconnection process are required to make to MISO, and is used to help alleviate the costs of necessary network upgrades and restudies that are shifted to other interconnection customers in the event that an interconnection customer withdraws from the interconnection queue. In its order, FERC initiated an investigation to analyze, among other things, whether or not all existing and future MISO interconnection customers should be required to make the M2 Milestone Payment.

On March 25, 2016, the United States Secretary of Energy, Ernest Moniz, announced that the Department of Energy (“DOE”) will participate in the development of the Plains and Eastern Clean Line Project (“Clean Line”). As a result, the Clean Line project will be the first transmission project that DOE helps develop directly, pursuant to the authority delegated to DOE in Section 1222 of the Energy Policy Act of 2005 (“EPAct 2005”).

On March 31, 2016, FERC issued an order (1) accepting and suspending Algonquin Gas Transmission, LLC’s (“Algonquin”) proposed tariff revisions exempting from FERC’s capacity release bidding requirements certain types of capacity releases of firm transportation by electric distribution companies (“EDCs”) that are participating in state-regulated electric reliability programs and (2) establishing a technical conference to determine whether the proposed tariff revisions are just and reasonable.

On March 17, 2016, the Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration (“PHMSA”) issued a Notice of Proposed Rulemaking (“NPRM”) expanding regulations for gas transmission and gathering pipelines. Specifically, PHMSA proposes, among other things, to (1) enhance integrity management (“IM”) requirements, (2) create a new clarification applicable to gas pipelines entitled “moderate consequence areas” or “MCAs,” (3) require pressure testing for older pipelines that have not previously required testing, and (4) modify regulations regarding onshore gathering lines.

On March 23, 2016, the Public Service Commission of the District of Columbia (“DCPSC”) issued an order approving the proposed $6.8 billion merger between Exelon Corporation (“Exelon”) and Pepco Holdings, Inc. (“Pepco” and together with Exelon, “Joint Applicants”). The DCPSC 2-1 vote approving the merger follows two previous orders in which the DCPSC denied the proposed merger on grounds that it was not in the public interest (see March 8, 2016, edition of the WER). Upon consummation of the merger, Exelon will become the largest electric utility in the United States by customer base. 

On March 22, 2016, FERC issued an order affirming its jurisdiction over Vermont Electric Cooperative, Inc. (“VEC”) in the context of a Federal Power Act (“FPA”) Section 206 investigation into the formula rates of ISO-New England (“ISO-NE”) Participating Transmission Owners, including their Regional Network Service (“RNS”) and Local Network Service (“LNS”) formula rates.

On March 21, 2016, the North American Electric Reliability Corporation (“NERC”) submitted to the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (“FERC” or the “Commission”) an informational filing (the “Report”) on the implementation of the Risk-Based Registration (“RBR”) initiative. The filing was made in compliance with a corresponding directive from the Commission’s March 19, 2015 order largely approving NERC’s RBR initiative (see March 23, 2015 edition of the WER).

On March 17, 2016, the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (“FERC” or the “Commission”) issued a Notice of Proposed Rulemaking (“NOPR”) that would modify the pro forma Small Generator Interconnection Agreement (“SGIA”) originally set forth in Order No. 2006. Specifically, FERC’s proposed modifications would require small generating facilities interconnecting through the SGIA to ride through abnormal frequency and voltage events rather than disconnecting. Because FERC already imposes such requirements on large generators under the Large Generator Interconnection Agreement, FERC stated that the proposed revisions address its concerns that it is unduly discriminatory to only impose such requirements on large generating facilities and not small generating facilities.