FERC Practice

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On January 13, 2026, the United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit (D.C. Circuit) in FERC v. PJM Interconnection, LLC., et al., held that FERC erred in concluding that a prior decision of the United States Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit (Third Circuit) foreclosed its authority under Section 206 of the Federal Power Act (FPA) to review and potentially modify PJM’s 2024/2025 capacity auction results. The court ruled that the Third Circuit’s application of the filed‑rate doctrine to PJM’s tariff amendment under Section 205 did not decide whether FERC could, in a separate proceeding, determine that the re‑run auction’s outcome was unjust and unreasonable and grant relief under Section 206.

On January 14, 2026, FERC accepted the Southwest Power Pool, Inc.’s (SPP) revisions to its Open Access Transmission Tariff (Tariff) to create a High Impact Large Load (HILL) study process and High Impact Large Load Generation Assessment (HILLGA) process. The HILL study process establishes study and operational requirements for HILLs connecting to SPP’s transmission system. The HILLGA is a new interconnection process for interconnection requests of generation resources necessary to serve HILLs. The Tariff revisions are effective as of January 15, 2026.

On December 29, 2025, FERC terminated the hydropower license for the 0.9-megawatt Au Train Hydroelectric Project (FERC Project No. 10856), located on the Au Train River in Alger County, Michigan (Termination Order). FERC concluded that termination of the license by “implied surrender” was warranted because the project’s licensee, UP Hydro, LLC (UP Hydro), had abandoned good-faith operation of the project through years of safety violations, loss of control over project lands, and financial collapse. The order ends more than two decades of federal oversight over the project and transfers regulatory authority to the State of Michigan to oversee the decommissioning of the dam.

On December 30, 2025, ISO New England Inc. (ISO-NE) and the New England Power Pool Participants Committee (NEPOOL) filed proposed revisions to ISO-NE’s Transmission, Markets and Services Tariff (Tariff) to establish a prompt capacity market and deactivation framework (CAR-PD) to be implemented starting with the proposed framework’s first annual capacity auction cycle for the June 1, 2028 – May 31, 2029 capacity commitment period (2028/2029 Delivery Period). If accepted, the prompt capacity market will replace ISO-NE’s three-year Forward Capacity Market (FCM). ISO-NE requests that the Commission accept its proposed reforms, effective March 31, 2026.

On December 10, 2025, FERC accepted Southwest Power Pool, Inc.’s (SPP) proposed tariff revision to extend its existing day-ahead market dispatchable transaction model into the real-time balancing market (RTBM). The Commission found the proposal to be just and reasonable and not unduly discriminatory or preferential, rejecting protests that raised concerns…

On December 18, 2025, FERC directed PJM Interconnection, L.L.C. (“PJM”) to revise its Open Access Transmission Tariff (“Tariff”) to:

1) establish terms that an Interconnection Customer seeking to serve co-located load must follow when effectuating a co-location arrangement;
2) clarify the scope and potential of interconnection service when interconnecting new generation to serve co-located load; and
3) require that a customer taking transmission service on behalf of co-located load take one of three new transmission services.

FERC found PJM’s Tariff was unjust and unreasonable because it did not provide the rates, terms, and conditions of service applicable to generators serving co-located load or eligible customers taking transmission service on behalf of such load with sufficient clarity or consistency. FERC separately established a paper hearing to determine just and reasonable rates for new transmission services and ordered PJM to revise the Behind the Meter Generation rules in the PJM Tariff.

On December 18, 2025, FERC maintained that gas pipelines offering service under section 311 of the Natural Gas Policy Act (NGPA) that base their section 311 rates on state-approved rates must nonetheless comply with Straight-Fixed Variable (SFV) rate design or justify a departure from SFV.  Specifically, FERC denied Matterhorn Express…

On November 17, 2025, FERC accepted the Midcontinent Independent System Operator, Inc.’s (MISO) proposed revisions to its Open Access Transmission Tariff (OATT) to modify real power testing requirements for Demand Resources. MISO specifically proposed more stringent requirements for Demand Resources seeking waiver of performing real power tests and real power tests for Demand Resources using a firm service level baseline. FERC accepted the proposed revisions as just and reasonable, finding the proposed revisions standardize testing procedures for Demand Resources.

On November 20, 2025, FERC terminated several long-pending rulemaking and policy dockets in an effort to provide “regulatory certainty.”  Specifically, FERC closed RM22-20, RM18-10, RM20-7, and PL20-7.

RM22-20 proposed requiring that any entity communicating with FERC or other specified organizations related to a matter subject to FERC’s jurisdiction submit accurate…

On November 20, 2025, FERC took several steps aimed at finalizing oil pipeline price index levels for the July 1, 2021, to June 30, 2026, time period (“2021-2026 Period”). First, FERC set the oil pipeline index level for the 2021-2026 Period at PP-FG+0.78% (“Initial Index”), consistent with the index level it originally set in December 2020. FERC also issued remedial relief through a rehearing order to applicable oil pipelines for the March 1, 2022, to September 17, 2024, time period in which an index level of PPI-FG-0.21% (“Rehearing Index”) was in effect. The relief ordered by FERC will allow qualifying pipeline to recover amounts they would have otherwise charged under the Initial Index while the Rehearing Index prices were in effect. Finally, FERC withdrew a Supplemental Notice of Proposed Rulemaking (“Supplemental NOPR”) in which FERC sought to proactively set the Rehearing Index as the index level for the remainder of the 2021-2026 Period.