On April 24, 2020, FERC largely upheld an earlier-issued order imposing additional transparency obligations on Midcontinent Independent System Operator, Inc. (“MISO”), Southwest Power Pool, Inc. (“SPP”), and PJM Interconnection, L.L.C. (“PJM”) (collectively, “RTOs”) regarding the RTOs’ Affected Systems study processes. FERC declined to require holistic alignment of the RTOs’ interconnection study processes, but clarified that, in subsequent compliance filings, the Commission will scrutinize whether each RTO applies the Energy Resource Interconnection Service (“ERIS”) or Network Resource Interconnection Service (“NRIS”) modeling standards in a just and reasonable manner.

On April 27, 2020, FERC granted renewable energy company Goldman Sachs Renewable Power Marketing, LLC (“GSRPM”) authority to make wholesale sales of energy, capacity, and ancillary services at market-based rates. However, FERC also found GSRPM to be affiliated with the investment bank Goldman Sachs Group, Inc. (“Goldman Sachs”). On the basis of that finding, FERC concluded that GSRPM would be subject to enhanced reporting requirements as a Category 2 Seller in the northwest region of the United States. The order reflects FERC’s increasing interest in the disclosure of corporate structure for purposes of affiliation determinations in market-based rate applications.

On May 1, 2020, President Trump issued Executive Order No. 13920 (“Executive Order”) prohibiting Federal agencies and U.S. persons from engaging in certain “transactions” defined thereunder—specifically, acquiring, importing, transferring, or installing certain items defined in the Executive Order as “bulk-power system electric equipment”—with “foreign adversaries.” Such equipment classifications and types are specified in the order and include “items used in bulk-power substations, control rooms, or power generating stations.” The prohibitions apply to transactions involving such equipment if such items are (i) designed, developed, manufactured, or supplied by a foreign adversary, or by persons under the control, direction, or jurisdiction of such adversaries and where (ii) such equipment pose an unacceptable risk to national security and America’s safety.

On April 17, 2020, FERC denied Potomac Economics, Ltd.’s (“Potomac Economics”) complaint against PJM Interconnection, L.L.C. (”PJM”), which alleged that PJM’s rule requiring external generation resources to obtain a pseudo-tie in order to participate in PJM’s capacity market was unjust and unreasonable (“Complaint”). FERC found that Potomac Economics failed to show that PJM’s pseudo-tie requirement had caused market inefficiencies or harmed reliability and that any arguments regarding potential future harms to the New York System Operator, Inc. (“NYISO”) by the pseudo-tie requirement were speculative. FERC also denied PJM’s motion to dismiss the Complaint, finding that market monitors may file complaints under Federal Power Act (“FPA”) section 206, provided that such market monitors satisfy the requirements of FERC’s relevant regulations.

On April 22, 2020, FERC accepted tariff revisions from Southwest Power Pool, Inc. (“SPP”) to comply with a October 17, 2019 order accepting in part SPP’s Order No. 841 compliance proposal (the “October Order”). FERC also directed SPP to submit a further compliance filing to specifically exempt run-of-the-river hydroelectric, wind, and solar resources from the continuous minimum run-time requirement under SPP’s Resource Adequacy tariff provisions and Planning Criteria.

On April 23, 2020 the Federal Communications Commission (“FCC”) issued a Report and Order adopting rules to make 1,200 megahertz of spectrum in the 6 GHz band—a band of airwaves used for communications in the operation of electric, oil, natural gas, and water companies—also available for unlicensed use by Wi-Fi and Bluetooth-connected consumer products. The FCC stated that expanding unlicensed broadband operations would provide opportunity for innovation and improve broadband speed and connectivity. The FCC also adopted an Automated Frequency Coordination (“AFC”) system to prevent unlicensed use from interfering with incumbent users including utilities. The Report and Order follows a December 2019 letter from FERC Chairman Neil Chatterjee and Commissioners Richard Glick and Bernard McNamee to FCC Chairman Ajit Pai, urging the FCC to consider additional testing of the AFC system to guarantee that unlicensed devices do not interfere with incumbent users.

On April 21, 2020, the National Rural Electric Cooperative Association (“NRECA”), an organization that represents the interests of over 900 electric cooperatives nationally, issued a fact sheet projecting that COVID-19’s economic impact on electric cooperatives will total an estimated $10 billion through 2022. This fact sheet follows an April 6, 2020 letter from the CEO of NRECA to congressional leaders requesting legislative remedies to help address the challenges currently facing electric cooperatives as a result of COVID-19. Among other things, NRECA explains that, absent federal assistance in the form of federal funding and repricing of the United States Department of Agriculture (“USDA”) Rural Utilities Services (“RUS”) debt, co-ops may face severe financial distress due to prohibitions against utility disconnections, increasing electric bill nonpayment, and loss of load.

On April 17, 2020, FERC granted the North American Electric Reliability Corporation’s (“NERC”) request to defer implementing several Commission-approved Reliability Standards that have effective dates or phased-in implementation dates in the second half of 2020. NERC argued the deferred implementation would not hamper grid reliability but would instead allow NERC-registered entities additional flexibility to continue prioritizing worker safety and reliability during the COVID-19 pandemic.

On April 16, 2020, FERC addressed the American Public Power Association (“APPA”) and Exelon Corporation and its public utility subsidiaries (collectively, “Exelon Companies”) requests for rehearing and clarification of Order No. 864.  Specifically, FERC:

  • granted in part APPA’s request, clarifying that public utilities with stated transmission rates are required to use some ratemaking method to appropriately account for excess or deficient accumulated deferred income taxes (“ADIT”) resulting from the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act (“TCJA”), which will be subject to review in the utility’s next rate case;
  • confirmed that, consistent with prior precedent, any excess or deficient ADIT will not result in a windfall to either shareholders or ratepayers of public utilities with stated transmission rates; and
  • denied Exelon Companies’ request for rehearing, reaffirming Order No. 864’s requirement that public utilities with transmission formula rates return to customers the full amount of excess ADIT resulting from TCJA.

On April 16, 2020, FERC denied rehearing of an April 2019 order approving changes to PJM Interconnection, L.L.C.’s (“PJM”) Variable Resource Requirement (“VRR”) demand curve in connection with PJM’s 2019 Base Residual Auction for the 2022/2023 Delivery Year (see April 24, 2019 edition of the WER for more background on the April 2019 order and the PJM’s VRR curve). Among other issues, FERC’s April 2020 order on rehearing rejected arguments that PJM erred in designating a combustion turbine (“CT”) power plant with a new H-class turbine configuration as the Reference Resource—a theoretical new generator that PJM uses as a benchmark to determine the cost of entering the market. In a lengthy dissent, Commissioner Richard Glick argued FERC’s decision is unsupported by substantial evidence and inconsistent with FERC precedent. According to Commissioner Glick, FERC’s approval of a CT Reference Resource and resulting Net Cost of New Entry (“CONE”) estimate will lead to host of issues, including distorting PJM’s entire capacity market design and harming consumers by increasing rates.