On December 30, 2016, FERC accepted the California Independent System Operator Corporation’s (“CAISO”) proposed revisions to the definition of “Load Serving Entity” under its tariff. In particular, CAISO’s proposed tariff revisions seek to add a new class of end user Load Serving Entities that: (1) are the ultimate consumers of electricity; (2) have legal authority to serve load through the purchase of energy from an entity that is not a Load Serving Entity; and (3) have exercised their right to purchase electricity from a party that is not serving as the Load Serving Entity for the transaction.

On January 4, 2017, FERC issued an order conditionally accepting certain Open Access Transmission Tariff (“Tariff”) revisions submitted by the Southwest Power Pool, Inc. (“SPP”) in November 2016. The proposed Tariff revisions amend Attachment AE of the SPP Tariff, including the sections governing the Auction Revenue Right (“ARR”) Allocation and Transmission Congestion Right (“TCR”) Offer and Bid submittal processes in SPP’s Integrated Marketplace.

On December 15, 2016, FERC issued a Notice of Inquiry (“NOI”) requesting comments regarding how FERC can ensure that partnerships that own and operate jurisdictional pipelines or public utilities, or similar pass-through entities (collectively, “Partnerships”), are not receiving “a double recovery of [income] taxes” based on FERC’s current income tax allowance (“ITA”) and return on equity (“ROE”) policies. FERC’s NOI comes in response to United Airlines, Inc. v. FERC, 827 F.3d 122 (2016), where the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit (“D.C. Circuit”) held that FERC had not “adequately justified” its current policy of granting such Partnerships an ITA – that is, the authority to recover from their ratepayers as a “cost” the income taxes paid by partner-investors on their shares of partnership income.

On December 15, 2016, FERC issued a Notice of Proposed Rulemaking (“NOPR”) in which it proposed to revise its regulations and the pro forma Large Generator Interconnection Procedures (“LGIP”) and pro forma Large Generator Interconnection Agreement (“LGIA”). According to FERC, the proposed reforms could help “improve the efficiency of processing interconnection requests for both transmission providers and interconnection customers, maintain reliability, increase energy supply, balance the needs of interconnection customers and transmission owners, and remove barriers to needed resource development.” Comments on the proposed reforms in FERC’s NOPR are due 60 days after publication of the NOPR in the Federal Register.

On December 15, 2016, FERC issued a notice of proposed rulemaking (“NOPR”) that proposed to establish a set of fast-start pricing requirements applicable to regional transmission organizations (“RTO”) and independent system operators (“ISO”). FERC indicated it was issuing the NOPR to address concerns that rates for fast-start resources in RTO and ISO day-ahead and real-time markets do not reflect the value of fast-start resources.

On December 5, 2016, the United States Court of Appeals for the Eighth Circuit (“Eighth Circuit”) ruled that the United States District Court for the District of Minnesota (“District Court”) did not have federal question jurisdiction over the breach of contract suit filed in Great Lakes Transmission Limited Partnership v. Essar Steel Minnesota., LLC. The Eighth Circuit vacated the lower court’s $32.9 million judgment in favor of the pipeline and remanded for dismissal. 

On December 6, 2016, FERC issued an order partially denying and partially granting a complaint brought by a coalition of transmission customers (“Coalition”) of the Midcontinent Independent System Operator, Inc. (“MISO”). The Coalition argued that MISO misapplied portions of its open access transmission tariff (“OATT” or “Tariff”) regarding the 2016/2017 planning year resource auction. Although the Commission rejected the Coalition’s argument that MISO utilized an unjust and unreasonable methodology for calculating Sub-Regional Export and Import constraints for the 2016/2017 auction, FERC found that prospective application of those methodologies was no longer just and reasonable, and directed MISO to modify its Tariff accordingly.

On December 5, 2016, the U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission (“CFTC”) reproposed regulations implementing limits on speculative futures and swaps positions (“Reproposal”). Notably, in the Reproposal, the CFTC: (1) proposes limits on speculative positions in 25 physical commodity futures contracts and their “economically equivalent” futures, options, and swaps; (2) proposes numerous adjustments to the bona fide hedging position definition; and (3) proposes to allow exchanges to recognize non-enumerated bona fide hedging positions and certain enumerated anticipatory hedge positions, and to grant spread exemptions.

On November 30, 2016, FERC issued an order accepting tariff revisions filed by Public Service Company of Colorado (“PSCo”) regarding penalty charges for energy imbalance and generator imbalance services under Schedules 4 and 9 of PSCo’s open access transmission tariff (“OATT”). FERC found the revisions, which PSCo filed to address the influx of variable wind generation on its system, to provide incentives for accurate scheduling from transmission customers.

On November 29, 2016, FERC granted Midcontinent Independent System Operator, Inc.’s (“MISO”) request for waiver of (1) the $1,000/MWh energy offer price cap (“Offer Cap”) on incremental energy offers in MISO’s day-ahead and real-time energy markets established in its Open Access Transmission, Energy, and Operating Reserve Markets Tariff (“Tariff”), and (2) the process that MISO’s Independent Market Monitor (“Market Monitor”) uses to establish reference levels for generation resources in MISO. Going forward, MISO resources will be allowed to include costs above the $1000/MWh Offer Cap in their supply offers from December 1, 2016, through April 30, 2017.