On December 5, 2024, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit heard oral arguments in Transource Pennsylvania LLC v. Steven M. Defrank, et.al. The case presents the question of potential tension between FERC’s exclusive authority over transmission planning and a state’s siting authority. The court has not yet decided the case.
FERC Practice
FERC Holds Technical Conference on Large Loads Co-Locating at Generating Facilities
By Alex Spratley, Ben Duwve & Elizabeth McCormick on
Posted in Data Centers, FERC Practice
On November 1, 2024, FERC Commissioners led a technical conference at their headquarters in Washington, DC, on issues pertaining to co-locating large loads at generating facilities. FERC Commissioners asked questions of individuals across the energy industry into how large loads, and data centers in particular, are impacting the grid and…
FERC Rejects Co-Located Load Increase Proposal at Nuclear Facility
By Alex Spratley & Russell Kooistra on
Posted in Data Centers, FERC Practice
On November 1, 2024, the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (“FERC”) rejected an amended Interconnection Service Agreement (“ISA”) filed by PJM Interconnection, L.L.C. (“PJM”) that proposed increasing the co-located data center load at a Susquehanna Nuclear, LLC (“Susquehanna”) nuclear generating facility. FERC held that PJM did not meet FERC’s “high burden”…
FERC Dismisses Challenges Related to Market-to-Market Coordination over Data Center-Constrained Flowgate
By Juan Dawson & Elizabeth McCormick on
Posted in Data Centers, Market Policy
On September 10, 2024, FERC issued an Order denying two complaints. The first complaint was filed on January 23, 2023 by Montana-Dakota Utilities Company (“MDU”) against Midcontinent Independent System Operator, Inc. (“MISO”) and Southwest Power Pool, Inc. (“SPP”). The second complaint was filed on March 8, 2024 by MISO against…
FERC Accepts SPP’s Proposed Tariff Revisions Allowing Make-Whole Payments
By Ben Duwve & Russell Kooistra on
Posted in FERC Practice
On September 19, 2024, FERC approved Southwest Power Pool, Inc.’s (“SPP”) proposed tariff revisions allowing make-whole payments for incremental energy costs for offers affected by the incremental energy offer cost caps required by FERC’s Order No. 831. In doing so, FERC found that the tariff revisions appropriately provide an opportunity…
FERC Denies CPower’s Complaint Requesting Revisions to PJM’s Tariff Governing Curtailment Service Providers
By Alex Spratley & Mary-Kate Rigney on
Posted in FERC Practice
On September 19, 2024, the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (“FERC”) denied Enerwise Global Technologies, LLC’s (“CPower”) complaint against PJM Interconnection, LLC (“PJM”) alleging that PJM’s Open Access Transmission Tariff (“Tariff”) was unjust, unreasonable, and unduly discriminatory because it prevents Curtailment Service Providers (“CSP”) from using approved statistical sampling rules to…
FERC Chief Accountant Proposes to Modify Transferability of Income Tax Credits
By S. Jennifer Panahi & Ben Duwve on
On September 12, 2024, FERC’s Chief Accountant issued a notice of proposed accounting release (“NOPAR”) to modify the transferability of income tax credits (“ITCs”) related to certain energy projects under the Inflation Reduction Act of 2022 (“IRA”), which allows entities to monetize such ITCs via transfers to independent third parties…
FERC Holds Workshop on Innovations & Efficiencies in Generator Interconnection Process, Seeks Comments
On September 10 and 11, 2024, FERC staff held a two-day workshop at its headquarters in Washington, DC on opportunities to further refine the generator interconnection queue process. Panelists and FERC staff discussed potential enhancements to transmission planning and processing interconnection requests over the course of six panels on discrete…
FERC Rejects Basin’s Special Rate for Crypto and Large Load Customers, Sparking Further Interest in “Large Load” Policy Discussions at FERC
By Jill Drum & Miles Kiger on
Posted in FERC Practice
On August 20, 2024, the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (“FERC”) issued an order rejecting, without prejudice, a contested proposal from Basin Electric Power Cooperative (“Basin”) to establish special wholesale power sales rate schedules for cryptocurrency (“crypto”) operations and other new large loads. While FERC expressed sympathy for Basin’s concerns regarding its ability to serve expected load growth reliably and economically, FERC found that Basin failed to justify its proposal to treat crypto currency mining loads differently from other large loads and therefore rejected the differential rate proposal.
Eighth Circuit Applies FERC’s Filed Rate Doctrine to Reject Allegations that SPP Breached an Oral Contract Made During Winter Storm Uri
By Quintessa Davis & Elizabeth McCormick on
Posted in FERC Practice
On August 5, 2024, the United States Court of Appeals for the Eighth Circuit (“Eighth Circuit”) denied Associated Electric Cooperative, Inc.’s (“AECI”) petition for review of a Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (“FERC”) order upholding FERC’s decision to exercise primary jurisdiction over emergency energy sales between Southwest Power Pool, Inc. (“SPP”) and AECI during Winter Storm Uri and FERC’s decision that SPP properly compensated AECI pursuant to SPP’s Open Access Transmission Tariff (“Tariff”). The Eighth Circuit denied the AECI’s petition and upheld FERC’s determination that AECI was appropriately compensated according to the existing tariff rates filed with FERC and, accordingly, rejected AECI’s claims that SPP had breached an alleged oral contract with SPP personnel made during the storm.