On February 28, 2020, FERC rejected Midcontinent Independent System Operator, Inc.’s (“MISO”) Tariff proposal to subject generation resources that are not designated as capacity resources (“Non-Capacity Resources”) to MISO’s physical withholding rules in MISO’s day-ahead market. FERC determined that MISO’s proposed revisions lacked sufficient clarity and would effectively subject Non-Capacity Resources to a must-offer rule obligation without a corresponding capacity payment.

On March 5, 2020, the United States Senate approved a motion to proceed on the American Energy Innovation Act (“AEIA”), S. 2657, after a cloture vote was called on the motion by Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) in order to move the bill to the Senate floor. However, on March 9, 2020, at least two measures to limit debate on the bill itself were rejected—opening the door for numerous floor amendments, including legislative language to limit greenhouse gas emissions that is projected to be offered by Senate Democrats.

The AEIA is a compendium of energy-related statutory provisions which was released in an omnibus, bipartisan legislative package on February 27, 2020 by Energy and Natural Resources Committee Chair Senator Lisa Murkowski (R-Alaska) and Ranking Member Senator Joe Manchin (D-W. Va.). Senators Murkowski and Manchin offered a substitute amendment featuring the full text of the AEIA (Amendment 1407) after the motion to proceed was voted-out affirmatively, and they are acting as floor managers for the bill.

Among other things, the bill focuses on advancements and development of energy storage and hydropower resources. In particular, as described in greater detail below, the bill directs FERC to initiate a rulemaking on cost recovery for energy storage assets and extends authorization for certain incentives to develop generation at non-powered or already-powered dams. The Committee held approximately 12 months of hearings on many of the proposed legislation’s components. If enacted, the bill would constitute the first major piece of national energy legislation since the Energy Policy Act of 2005, after a twelve-year hiatus in significant congressional activity.

On Monday, March 2, FERC staff issued three virtually identical orders extending the license terms for 20 hydroelectric projects along the Wisconsin River that have licenses set to expire between 2026 and 2035, to align their license expiration dates and better coordinate the FERC relicensing process.  The three orders each address licenses for projects located in certain sub-basins of the Wisconsin River: the northern sub-basin, which includes eight projects; the central sub-basin, which includes 10 projects, and the southern sub-basin, which includes two projects.

On February 21, 2020, FERC issued an order accepting ISO New England Inc.’s (“ISO-NE”) November 5, 2019 informational filing about the parameters of its fourteenth Forward Capacity Auction (“FCA 14”) for the 2023-24 Capacity Commitment Period (“Informational Filing”).  In so doing, FERC rejected arguments from ISO-NE’s External Market Monitor and others that ISO-NE over-mitigated the bids of various energy storage resources by relying on improper assumptions and historical data. FERC’s order sparked a dissent from Commissioner Richard Glick.

On February 27, 2020, FERC accepted a compliance filing from PJM Interconnection, L.L.C. (“PJM”) that proposed identical revisions to Attachment K of the PJM Tariff and Schedule 1 of the PJM Operating Agreement, finding that the revisions met the requirements of Opinion No. 566, issued August 26, 2019. In accepting PJM’s compliance filing, FERC found that the PJM Tariff now includes greater transparency regarding the process used to evaluate requests to build network upgrades in order to obtain Incremental Auction Revenue Rights (“IARRs”).

On February 12, 2020, the U.S. International Trade Commission (“ITC”) issued a notice stating that it will investigate and report on the potential economic effects of renewable energy commitments, including the role of renewable energy imports, in Massachusetts and the broader New England region as requested by the Committee on Ways and Means of the U.S. House of Representatives (“Committee”). The ITC intends to send the report to the Committee by January 25, 2021.

On February 14, 2020, FERC rejected ISO New England Inc.’s (“ISO-NE”) and the New England Power Pool Participants Committee’s (together with ISO-NE, the “Filing Parties”) proposed revisions to the ISO-NE tariff intended to allow for the termination of ISO-NE’s Fuel Security Reliability Retention Mechanism (“Fuel Security Mechanism”) at the end of Forward Capacity Auction (“FCA”) 14 – one year earlier than currently provided in the tariff. The Fuel Security Mechanism allows ISO-NE to retain resources for fuel security that seek to retire in FCAs 13, 14, or 15 and was initially implemented following ISO-NE’s 2018 petition for waiver seeking to retain two retiring Mystic Units through FCA 15 (“Mystic Units”). FERC rejected the filing because ISO-NE had not yet submitted its proposed long-term solutions to address fuel security concerns and because it found that that ISO-NE’s proposed interim solutions were inadequate. FERC Commissioner Richard Glick dissented from the order, arguing the majority lacked a reasoned basis to find that ISO-NE’s filing was not just and reasonable.

On February 20, 2020, FERC issued four separate orders with significant impacts on renewable and storage resources under the New York Independent System Operator, Inc.’s (“NYISO”) buyer-side mitigation (“BSM”) rules (collectively, “February 20 Orders”). BSM rules serve some of the same purposes as PJM’s Minimum Offer Price Rule or “MOPR.” While the orders explicitly limit or reject proposed renewable and storage exemptions, the orders are equally important for what they do not do. Focused on the cases and records before it, FERC declined to extend BSM to apply outside of the so-called Mitigated Capacity Zones or “MCZs” (New York City, or Zone J, and the Lower Hudson Valley, or Zones G through J). Consequently, BSM still does NOT apply to any units, including renewable, storage or nuclear units, outside of these MCZs. FERC also directed NYISO to better tailor a renewable exemption specific to the MCZs. The extent to which this will help the new development of offshore wind in New York remains to be seen.  In dissenting opinions, Commissioner Richard Glick argued, among other things, that the majority’s overall approach to BSM will protect incumbent generators while impeding state clean energy policies.

On February 20, 2020, FERC issued a notice of inquiry (“NOI”) to learn more about the potential benefits and risks of virtualization and cloud computing services in the bulk electric system operations. The NOI also seeks information about the barriers that exist in FERC-approved Critical Infrastructure Protection (“CIP”) Reliability Standards that impede the voluntary adoption of virtualization or cloud computing services.

On February 20, 2020, FERC issued Order No. 861-A, granting certain clarifications about, and denying rehearing of, FERC’s sweeping market-based rate reforms in Order No. 861 (see July 24, 2019 edition of the WER). In Order No. 861-A, FERC held that sellers of capacity located in the California Independent System Operator Corporation (“CAISO”) market must continue to submit indicative screens in order to obtain authorization to make capacity sales at market-based rates. FERC also affirmed that capacity sellers located in CAISO may not rely on a rebuttable presumption that the Capacity Procurement Mechanism (“CPM”) adequately mitigates these sellers’ horizontal market power. FERC issued Order No. 861-A in response to requests for rehearing and clarification from CAISO and Pacific Gas & Electric Company (“PG&E”).