Transmission

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On December 29, 2017, FERC conditionally accepted revisions to the Joint Operating Agreement (“JOA”) between PJM Interconnection, L.L.C. (“PJM”) and Midcontinent Independent Operator System, Inc. (“MISO”) that are intended to improve the coordination of resources that are pseudo-tied between the two regional transmission organizations (“RTOs”).   A “pseudo-tie” is a mechanism used by one Balancing Authority (“BA”) to control generating resources that are physically located in another BA.  The proposed revisions were given an effective date of October 1, 2017, subject to a ministerial compliance filing.

On December 21, 2017, FERC accepted the Southwest Power Pool, Inc.’s (“SPP”) proposed tariff revisions related to its Integrated Transmission Planning (“ITP”) process contained in SPP’s Open Access Transmission Tariff (“Tariff”).  In 2015, SPP created the Transmission Planning Improvement Task Force (“Task Force”) to review its transmission planning process to determine if improvements were needed.  Based on the Task Force’s recommendations, SPP proposed to revise certain language in its Tariff, including moving from a three-year transmission planning cycle to a one-year cycle.

On December 21, 2017, FERC issued an order accepting a proposal from the Midcontinent Independent System Operator, Inc. (“MISO”) to revise its Open Access Transmission, Energy, and Operating Reserve Markets Tariff (“Tariff”) and establish Dynamic Narrow Constrained Areas (“Dynamic NCAs”).  FERC found that MISO’s proposal would strengthen existing market power mitigation measures in MISO and help ensure that the potential exercise of market power during such transitory conditions would be properly mitigated.

On December 5, 2017, FERC approved a trio of proposed revisions to the Open Access Transmission, Energy, and Operating Reserve Markets Tariff (“Tariff”) of the Midcontinent Independent System Operator, Inc. (“MISO”).  These revisions all pertained to MISO’s Competitive Developer Selection Process, memorialized in Tariff Attachment FF, which sets out the process for identifying certain transmission facilities within a regional transmission project as well as qualified developers to construct the facilities.  FERC approved the proposed revisions after finding that they would improve MISO’s Competitive Developer Selection Process and make it more efficient.

On November 17, 2017, FERC conditionally accepted a proposal filed by the PJM Interconnection, LLC (“PJM”) to establish pseudo-tie requirements for new external resources desiring to participate in PJM’s forward capacity auction, as well as a transition period to allow existing “pseudo-tie” resources to comply with the new requirements.  PJM’s proposal was given a May 9, 2017 effective date, provided that it submits further compliance filings addressing FERC’s concerns in its order.

On November 3, 2017, FERC largely denied rehearing requests from a group of generation developers (“Generation Developers”) regarding the Midcontinent Independent System Operator, Inc.’s (“MISO”) revisions to its Generator Interconnection Procedures (“GIP”) and its pro forma Generator Interconnection Agreement (“GIA”).  With the exception of one issue, FERC otherwise rejected the Generation Developers requests that FERC reconsider prior MISO revisions regarding the efficiency and timeliness of MISO’s generator interconnection queue process contained in Attachment X of its Open Access Transmission, Energy and Operating Reserve Markets Tariff (“Tariff”).

On October 19, 2017, FERC ordered Southwest Power Pool, Inc. (“SPP”) to revise its Open Access Transmission Tariff (“OATT”) to provide that network customers with service subject to redispatch can only obtain Auction Revenue Rights (“ARRs”) and Long-Term Congestion Rights (“LTCRs”) for those times and in the amounts that service can be provided without redispatch.

On October 13, 2017, a group of transmission owners in the Southwest Power Pool, Inc. (“SPP”) filed a complaint with FERC under Section 206 of the Federal Power Act alleging that SPP’s Open Access Transmission Tariff (“Tariff”) is unjust and unreasonable because it lacks cost-shifting protections when new transmission owners join existing SPP transmission pricing zones.  To correct this alleged “loophole,” the complainants propose a new rate schedule for new transmission owners that are placed into existing zones.

On October 6, 2017, FERC approved the New York Independent System Operator, Inc. (“NYISO”) and PJM Interconnection, L.L.C.’s (“PJM”; together with NYISO, “RTOs”) revisions to their Joint Operating Agreement (“JOA”), and NYISO’s revisions to its Market Administration and Control Area Services Tariff (“Tariff”), that address interchange schedule and Market-to-Market (“M2M”) coordination at the ABC and JK Interfaces on the border of northern New Jersey and southeastern New York.  Specifically, FERC found that the RTOs’ proposal to implement a wheeling arrangement over a newly formed PJM-NY AC Proxy Bus and to establish an Operational Base Flow (“OBF”) over the Interfaces was just and reasonable.

On October 6, 2017, FERC rejected the New England transmission owners’ (“NETOs”) amended compliance filing to reinstate their previous FERC-issued returns on equity (“ROE”), which were lowered due to a now-vacated FERC order.  FERC found that reinstating the original ROE would complicate the backdating process for which refunds or surcharges would be ordered and instead ordered the NETOs to continue collecting under their current, pending ROEs.