On March 30, 2012, FERC conditionally approved a proposal from the Midwest Independent System Operator (“MISO”) to revise its interconnection queue procedures.  The new procedures are designed to address backlogs and late-stage terminations of generation interconnection agreements.  FERC approved the new procedures to take effect on January 1, 2012.

On April 2, 2012, PJM made a filing with FERC proposing to change its Operating Agreement in an effort to align compensation provided to wind generators for “lost opportunity costs” with the compensation currently offered to conventional generating resources.

On April 5, 2012, FERC Staff issued a Notice of Alleged Violations against Barclays Bank PLC (“Barclays”) and individual traders Daniel Brin, Scott Connelly, Karen Levine, and Ryan Smith.

On March 16, 2012, FERC Chairman Jon Wellinghoff spoke at the GreenBiz Energy Group Verge conference.  During a post-speech interview he stated “[t]he traditional utility is either going to have to change or die.”  Wellinghoff noted during the interview that this statement is an attempt to clarify an earlier comment where Wellinghoff categorized utilities as “dinosaurs.”

On March 26, 2012, in an attempt to gain approval of their merger, Duke Energy Corp. (“Duke”) and Progress Energy, Inc. (“Progress”) (together, “Applicants”) filed a revised market power mitigation proposal (“Proposal”) with FERC.