FERC Practice

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On December 5, 2024, the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (“FERC”) approved Public Service Electric and Gas Company’s settlement agreement (“PSE&G”) to pay a $6.6 million civil penalty to resolve an ongoing investigation with FERC’s Office of Enforcement (“FERC Enforcement”). According to FERC’s order, the underlying investigation involved PSE&G’s alleged failure to provide full and accurate information when seeking approval from PJM Interconnection, L.L.C. (“PJM”) to replace a transmission line in New Jersey as part of the PJM Regional Transmission Expansion Plan (“RTEP”) process. PSE&G also agreed to submit to annual compliance monitoring for up to two years as part of the approved Stipulation and Consent Agreement (“Stipulation”).

On November 21, 2024, FERC issued Order No. 1920-A, which modified Order No. 1920 to expand the states’ roles in long-term transmission planning and clarified requirements for such planning as set forth in Order No. 1920. FERC made changes in three broad areas, amongst many other modifications: (1) expanding the role of state entities in the transmission planning process, (2) requiring transmission providers to create additional transmission planning scenarios to inform implementation of cost allocation methods upon the request of state entities, and (3) removing the requirement for transmission providers to include corporate financial commitments in Factor Category Seven when developing long-term transmission planning scenarios.

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.

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…

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”…

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…

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…

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…

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…

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…