FERC Practice

Subscribe to FERC Practice via RSS

On March 31, 2025, FERC granted in part and denied in part Basin Electric Power Cooperative’s (Basin Electric) petition for declaratory order seeking transmission incentives for the Roundup-Kummer Ridge Project, the Tande-Finstad-Leland Olds Project (LOS-Tande Project), and the NE Williston-Folvag 115 kV-Judson-East Fork-Tande Project (Springbrook Project) (collectively, “Projects”). FERC granted the Hypothetical Capital Structure Incentive and the Abandoned Plant Incentive to both the LOS-Tande Project and Springbrook Project, but denied the Hypothetical Capital Structure Incentive for the Roundup-Kummer Ridge Project.

On March 28, 2025, the D.C. Circuit denied a joint petition for review brought by Healthy Gulf and Sierra Club (together, “Petitioners”) challenging FERC’s grant of a certificate of public convenience and necessity (CPCN) to Driftwood Pipeline LLC (Driftwood) to construct two new natural gas pipelines (the “Project”) in southwestern Louisiana on grounds that FERC’s decision failed to comply with National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) and the Natural Gas Act (NGA). The D.C. Circuit affirmed FERC’s analyses under NEPA and NGA but declined to address Driftwood’s claim that the Council on Environmental Quality’ (CEQ) regulations implementing NEPA, upon which Petitioners based their arguments, are not judicially enforceable because CEQ lacks authority to promulgate them.

On March 27, 2025, FERC approved Southwest Power Pool, Inc.’s (SPP) tariff revisions to remove the opportunity for resources that self-commit during the Reliability Unit Commitment Process (RUC) to avoid contributing to RUC system-wide make-whole payments. In doing so, FERC found the revisions are consistent with cost causation principles.

On March 30, 2025, FERC approved revisions to Southwest Power Pool, Inc.’s (“SPP”) Open Access Transmission Tariff (“Tariff”) and Governing Documents to allow nine entities (“Expansion Members”) in the Western Interconnection to join SPP’s Regional Transmission Organization (“RTO”) as transmission-owning members (“RTO West”), on the condition that SPP submit compliance…

On March 20, 2025, FERC approved Southwest Power Pool, Inc.’s (“SPP”) tariff revisions to incorporate a mark-to-auction collateral requirement for SPP’s Transmission Congestion Rights (“TCR”) market.  In doing so, FERC found the revisions will mitigate market risk caused by market participants’ declining TCR values.  However, the Commission declined SPP’s request to terminate the related ongoing show cause proceeding because the proposed tariff does not fully address the Commission’s concerns.

On February 28, 2025, FERC granted a request by Holtec Palisades, LLC (“Holtec”) for waiver of certain provisions of the Midcontinent Independent System Operator, Inc. (“MISO”) Open Access Transmission, Energy and Operating Reserve Markets Tariff (“Tariff”) to prevent the termination of interconnection service to the Palisades Nuclear Plant (“Palisades”). Absent the requested waiver, Palisades’ interconnection service in MISO was set to terminate on May 20, 2025, which would have delayed its return to commercial operations as Palisades progresses through the recommissioning process. According to Holtec’s waiver request, Palisades is set to become the first suspended nuclear plant to return to active service in the United States.

On February 20, 2025, FERC denied Great Basin Transmission, LLC’s (“Great Basin”) request for two transmission incentives for Great Basin’s Southwest Intertie Project-North Transmission Line and associated upgrades to Great Basin’s existing One Nevada Transmission Line (together, the “Project”). FERC found that Great Basin did not demonstrate that the Project…

On February 20, 2025, FERC found that the PJM Interconnection, L.L.C. (“PJM”) Open Access Transmission Tariff (“OATT”) appears to be unjust and unreasonable because it does not address with clarity or consistency the rates, terms, and conditions of service that apply to co-location arrangements and therefore directed PJM to show cause as to why the OATT, the Amended and Restated Operating Agreement of PJM, and Reliability Assurance Agreement Among Load Serving Entities in the PJM region (collectively, “Tariffs”) are just and reasonable or explain what changes to the Tariffs would remedy FERC’s concerns regarding co-location arrangements.  In a separate order issued on February 20, 2025, FERC also rejected a proposal from certain Exelon transmission-owning utilities (“Exelon Companies”) to revise their transmission rate schedules attached to the PJM OATT to clarify that co-located load that is synchronized to the grid must be designated as network load or receive point-to-point transmission service.

On February 20, 2025, FERC Chairman Mark Christie announced an upcoming Commissioner-led technical conference on resource adequacy in Regional Transmission Organization (“RTO”) and Independent System Operator (“ISO”) regions. The technical conference will take place over two days at FERC headquarters in Washington, D.C. on June 4, 2025, and June 5, 2025.