On September 20, 2010, the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (“FERC” or the “Commission”) issued a Final Rule, Promoting a Competitive Market for Capacity Reassignment.  This Order No. 739 lifts the price cap for all electric transmission customers reassigning transmission capacity, and the new rule is an attempt to develop a market for capacity reassignment in lieu of direct acquisitions of capacity from a transmission owner. 

On September 16, 2010, the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (“FERC” or the “Commission”) issued two orders denying rehearing requests for Tres Amigas LLC’s (“Tres Amigas”) transmission project.  FERC denied the request for rehearing of the order where the Commission refused to disclaim jurisdiction over Electric Reliability Council of Texas (“ERCOT”) if it connected with the Tres Amigas Project.  Also, FERC denied the rehearing request of the order that conditionally approved the negotiated rate authority for transmission service at the Tres Amigas Superstation facility.

On September 16, 2010, FERC unanimously approved the Revised Policy Statement on penalty guidelines for enforcement cases at their monthly meeting.  FERC released their initial penalty guidelines on March 18, 2010, but on April 15, 2010, the Commission suspended the use of the guidelines and opened up the forum for comments. (See April 16, 2010 issue of the WER)  The revised guidelines incorporate many changes based on the comments FERC received.

On August 20, 2010, the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (“FERC” or the “Commission”) approved an audit report on the Western Electricity Coordinating Council (“WECC”), and in that order, FERC directed WECC to make organizational changes that will separate certain operational functions from the functions of overseeing regional reliability standards.