On March 5, 2014, FERC’s Acting General Counsel David Morenoff issued an opinion letter addressing the requirements for claiming qualifying facility (“QF”) status in response to a request made on behalf of NRG Power Midwest, LP.  In the letter, Morenoff concluded that: (1) the owner or operator of a facility could not claim QF status unless it filed a notice of self-certification, FERC granted an application for certification, or FERC granted a waiver of the requirement that the QF make a notice filing; (2) actual or constructive notice of facility characteristics outside of the certification process does not confer QF status; and (3) the notice of self-certification is prospective from the date of filing unless FERC grants retroactive application via a declaratory order.

On March 14, 2014, FERC issued two related orders on fuel cost recovery in the California Independent System Operator Corporation’s (“CAISO”) markets.  In the first order, FERC granted the CAISO’s petition for a limited tariff waiver allowing generators to recover increased natural gas costs.  The second order rejected a competing proposal from California generators.

On March 5, 2014, FERC and the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (“CFTC”) announced the creation of a staff-level Interagency Surveillance and Data Analytics Working Group.  This new working group will focus on data security, data sharing infrastructure, and the use of analytical tools for regulatory purposes, all of which is intended to help FERC and the CFTC coordinate the sharing of information between the two agencies. 

On March 4, 2014, FERC announced an upcoming technical conference on the recent revisions to the Electric Quarterly Report (“EQR”) filing process.  At the technical conference FERC staff will demonstrate and discuss the two new options for filing EQRs before the system goes “live” and public and non-public utilities are required to file their EQRs,  in accordance with FERC’s revised deadlines (see March 3, 2014 edition of the WER).

On March 4, 2014, FERC announced a procedural practice change regarding filings during weather-related closures of Washington, D.C.-based federal government offices.  Effective March 7, 2014, FERC announced that it will no longer accept filings, either in person or online, when the Office of Personnel closes the federal government in Washington, D.C. for weather-related events.  FERC will resume accepting submissions upon the reopening of the federal government in Washington, D.C.

On February 28, 2014, the Commission issued an order setting the deadlines for all public and non-public utilities to file Electric Quarterly Reports (“EQRs”) for the third quarter (“Q3”) and fourth quarter (“Q4”) of 2013, and for the first quarter (“Q1”) of 2014.   The Commission’s February 28th order follows a January 22, 2014 technical conference held by FERC to discuss revisions to the EQR process (see January 27, 2014 edition of the WER).