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On November 20, 2014, the Commission issued an order accepting the Five-Year Performance Assessment of the North American Electric Reliability Corporation (“NERC”).  In its order, the Commission concluded that NERC continued to meet the qualifications necessary for certification as the Electric Reliability Organization (“ERO”) of the United States, and issued additional compliance directives for NERC going forward.

On November 20, 2014, FERC’s Office of Enforcement (“Enforcement”) released its 2014 Report on Enforcement (“Report”).  The Report provided an overview of Enforcement’s activities during 2014, specifically detailing the activities of the Division of Investigations (“DOI”), Division of Audits and Accounting (“DAA”), Division of Energy Market Oversight (“Market Oversight”), and Division of Analytics and Surveillance (“DAS”).  The Report is provided pursuant to FERC’s 2008 Revised Policy Statement on Enforcement, and according to the Report, is designed to provide additional information regarding the nature of the non-public work of Enforcement.

On November 10, 2014, FERC accepted the Southwest Power Pool, Inc.’s (“SPP”) proposal to integrate the Western Area Power Administration – Upper Great Plains Region (“Western-UGP”), Basin Electric Power Cooperative, and Heartland Consumers Power District (collectively the “Joint Integrated System Parties”) into SPP.  FERC’s order significantly expands the SPP market, more than doubling its size.  Combined, the Joint Integrated System Parties operate the bulk electric transmission system across multiples states in the Upper Great Plains region, including Iowa, Minnesota, Montana, Nebraska, North Dakota, and South Dakota, with systems consisting of approximately 9,500 miles of transmission lines.

On November 7, 2014, the Commission denied Consumers Energy Company’s (“Consumers”) request for limited waiver of several MISO tariff provisions on the grounds that Consumers had failed to adequately demonstrate that the requested waiver would not cause undesirable consequences, such as harming third-parties.  Consumers had filed its request for waiver in response to conflicting regulatory obligations under the MISO tariff and the EPA’s Mercury and Air Toxics Standards (“MATS”).

On November 10, 2014, FERC approved a contested settlement between several California utilities and the California Public Utilities Commission (collectively, the “California Parties”) against the California Department of Water Resources (“CDWR”), State Water Project for actions that arose during the western energy crisis from 2000 – 2001.  Under the settlement, the CDWR State Water Project will pay $26.6 million to the California Parties for its actions during the western energy crisis.

On October 31, 2014, the Commission announced that it will hold a technical conference on January 7, 2015 concerning the justness and reasonableness of PJM Interconnection, L.L.C.’s
(“PJM”) existing tariff provisions related to the Financial Transmission Rights (“FTR”) forfeiture rule and uplift allocations as applied to Up-to Congestion (“UTC”) transactions.

On November 5, 2014, Southern California Edison (“SCE”) announced that it entered into contracts for 2,221 MW of power to satisfy its customers’ demand, including contracts for 262 MW of long-term storage capacity.  The energy storage agreements were in response to the California Public Utilities Commission’s (“CPUC”) rulemaking that set energy storage targets for investor-owned utilities in the State of California.

On October 20, 2014, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit (“D.C. Circuit”) approved a request by FERC to delay finalizing its decision that vacated FERC Order No. 745 regarding demand response compensation for consumers.  The D.C. Circuit approved the delay through December 16, 2014.  Additionally, it stated that if it is notified of a petition for writ of certiorari filed during the delay, the court will withhold issuance of the mandate finalizing its decision to vacate, pending the Supreme Court’s final disposition.

On October 24, 2014, FERC dismissed requests for rehearing on the notice placing the ISO New England Inc.’s (“ISO-NE”) eighth annual Forward Capacity Auction (“FCA”) results into effect (“FCA Notice”).  FERC ruled that because the results of the auction took effect by operation of law, rather than a FERC-issued order, there was no order to rehear.