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In an unusual move, on July 9, 2013, FERC announced that the Office of Enforcement will seek information from certain unnamed natural gas marketers concerning those marketers’ natural gas sales activities.  These efforts appear to be connected with the Commission’s November 12, 2012 Notice of Inquiry (“NOI”) on Enhanced Natural Gas Market Transparency in Docket No. RM13-1-000 (see November 16, 2012 edition of the WER), and do not appear to be enforcement actions against the companies from whom information will be sought.

On Wednesday, June 26, 2013, FERC issued an order denying rehearing (“Order Denying Rehearing”) of two prior orders related to the Bonneville Power Administration’s (“Bonneville”) transmission service curtailment practices under a protocol currently named the “Oversupply Management Protocol” (“OMP”).  In those prior orders FERC: (1) reaffirmed its authority under Federal Power Act (“FPA”) Section 211A and its use of  that authority order to remedy Bonneville’s unduly discriminatory practices against wind generation; and (2) directed Bonneville to significantly revise its proposed oversupply curtailment policies and cost allocation mechanisms in order to ensure comparability and eliminate undue discrimination (see January 8, 2013 edition of the WER).  The Order Denying Rehearing again affirmed FERC’s authority to act under FPA Section 211A and further clarified the revisions Bonneville must make to its OMP schema. 

On June 28, 2013, President Barack Obama announced the nomination of Colorado’s Ron Binz to become a FERC Commissioner, taking the seat of outgoing Chairman Jon Wellinghoff who announced his resignation last May (see May 31, 2013 edition of the WER).  The White House also announced that upon his appointment, the President will designate Binz to serve as the Commission’s Chairman.  Binz’s appointment to the Commission will require Senate confirmation.

On June 25, 2013, President Barack Obama released a sweeping climate plan (“Plan”) using his authority to both address greenhouse gas (“GHG”) emissions and to prepare for the impacts of climate change.  The plan, which consists of a wide variety of executive actions, has three key pillars: (1) cut carbon pollution in America; (2) prepare the United States for the impacts of climate change; and (3) lead international efforts to combat global climate change.

On June 20, 2013, the Commission accepted the North American Electric Reliability Corporation’s (“NERC”) compliance filing concerning the progress of its Find, Fix, Track and Report (“FFT”) program, and approved certain enhancements offered by NERC aimed at improving processing time for FFTs and allowing more possible violations to be processed as FFTs.

On June 20, 2013, FERC conditionally granted the Western Electricity Coordinating Council’s (“WECC”) petition to establish a separate, independent company to serve as the reliability coordinator within the Western Interconnection.  Once established, the new company, RC Company, will take over as the reliability coordinator from WECC and assume responsibility for the WECC Interchange Tool.  FERC’s final approval of the petition will rest upon review of RC Company’s final governance documents.

On June 7, 2013, FERC approved a Stipulation and Consent Agreement (“Settlement”) with Enerwise Global Technologies, Inc. (“Enerwise”) for violations of the PJM Interconnection, LLC(“PJM”) Open Access Transmission Tariff (“Tariff”) and the Commission’s Anti-Manipulation Rule 18 C.F.R. § 1c.2 (2012).  Enerwise committed these violations in connection with its activities as a Curtailment Service Provider (“CSP”) in PJM, and specifically, its demand response activities with one customer, the Maryland Stadium Authority (“MSA”).

On June 20, 2013, FERC issued an order denying requests for rehearing (“Order Denying Rehearing”) of its September 20, 2012 Order (“September 20 Order”) regarding Idaho Power Company’s (“Idaho Power”) proposal to curtail purchases from Qualifying Facilities (“QFs”) that met certain characteristics.  On rehearing, FERC reiterated that if Idaho Power’s proposal were to be approved by the Idaho Public Utilities Commission (“Idaho PUC”), it would be inconsistent with the Public Utility Regulatory Policies Act of 1978 and FERC’s regulations.  (See September 23, 2012 edition of the WER.)