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On March 22, 2016, FERC issued an order affirming its jurisdiction over Vermont Electric Cooperative, Inc. (“VEC”) in the context of a Federal Power Act (“FPA”) Section 206 investigation into the formula rates of ISO-New England (“ISO-NE”) Participating Transmission Owners, including their Regional Network Service (“RNS”) and Local Network Service (“LNS”) formula rates.

On March 17, 2016, the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (“FERC” or the “Commission”) issued a Notice of Proposed Rulemaking (“NOPR”) that would modify the pro forma Small Generator Interconnection Agreement (“SGIA”) originally set forth in Order No. 2006. Specifically, FERC’s proposed modifications would require small generating facilities interconnecting through the SGIA to ride through abnormal frequency and voltage events rather than disconnecting. Because FERC already imposes such requirements on large generators under the Large Generator Interconnection Agreement, FERC stated that the proposed revisions address its concerns that it is unduly discriminatory to only impose such requirements on large generating facilities and not small generating facilities.

On March 17, 2016, FERC granted in part and denied in part a petition for waiver of the obligation to purchase energy and capacity from qualifying facilities (“QFs”) filed by Heartland Consumers Power District (“Heartland”) under section 292.402 of FERC’s Public Utilities Regulatory Policy Act (“PURPA”) regulations. Heartland’s petition for waiver—filed on behalf of its municipal customers in Minnesota, Iowa, and South Dakota—sought waiver of its customers’ obligations to purchase energy and capacity made available to them by QFs. 

On March 17, 2016, the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (“FERC” or the “Commission”) issued an order approving Reliability Standard PRC-026-1 (Relay Performance During Stable Power Swings). According to the Commission, PRC-026-1 is “designed to ensure that applicable entities use protective relay systems that can differentiate between faults and stable power swings.” The Commission also approved the proposed violation risk factors, violation severity levels, and implementation plan for PRC-026-1. Under the approved implementation plan, Requirement R1 of PRC-026-1 will become effective 12 months after Commission approval, and Requirements R2, R3, and R4 will become effective 36 months after Commission approval.

In an order issued March 11, 2016, FERC denied the application of Pacific Connector Gas Pipeline, LP (“Pacific Connector”) for an NGA Section 7 certificate that would have authorized the construction and operation of a 232-mile-long, 36-inch-diameter interstate pipeline in Oregon terminating at the proposed Jordan Cove LNG Terminal. FERC held that Pacific Connector had presented little or no evidence of need for the proposed pipeline, and that its generalized allegations of need did not outweigh the potential adverse impact on landowners and communities. With respect to the Jordan Cove LNG Terminal, FERC noted that while its Certificate Policy Statement does not specifically apply to facilities authorized to be constructed to export natural gas or LNG under NGA section 3, FERC is still required to conclude that authorization of such facilities will not be inconsistent with the public interest. Because the proposed Pacific Connector Pipeline was the sole proposed source of natural gas for the Jordan Cove LNG Terminal, and FERC had just denied the application relating to it, FERC also denied Jordan Cove Energy Project, L.P.’s (“Jordan Cove’s”) NGA Section 3 application, holding that “without a pipeline connecting it to a source of gas” the project “provide[d] no benefit to the public to counterbalance any of” the impacts associated with its proposed construction.

On March 3, 2016, FERC issued an order denying a complaint filed by PáTu Wind Farm, LLC (“PáTu”)—a 9 megawatt qualifying facility (“QF”) under the Public Utility Regulatory Policies Act of 1978 (“PURPA”). The complaint alleged that Portland General Electric Company (“Portland General”) was required to set up a pseudo-tie so that PáTu could dynamically schedule its entire net output to Portland General.

On March 8, 2016, the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (“FERC”) accepted Southwest Power Pool, Inc.’s (“SPP”) proposed revisions to its Open Access Transmission Tariff (“Tariff”) to identify the border between the United States and Canada as the point-of-sale for market transactions that involve a Canadian transmission service provider. Subject to a minor condition, SPP’s Tariff revisions are effective immediately.

On March 8, 2016, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit (“D.C. Circuit”) granted Xcel Energy Services Inc.’s (“Xcel”) petition for review of FERC orders related to tariff revisions filed by Southwest Power Pool, Inc. (“SPP”) to implement a formula rate for transmission service on behalf of Tri-County Electric Cooperative, Inc. (“Tri-County”), a non-jurisdictional transmission owner. 

On March 7, 2016, the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (“FERC” or the “Commission”) conditionally approved amendments to the California Independent System Operator Corporation’s (“CAISO”) Open Access Transmission Tariff (“OATT”) that are designed to enhance CAISO’s generator interconnection process. The proposed amendments represent the second and final set of OATT revisions resulting from CAISO’s 2015 interconnection enhancement stakeholder initiative.

On February 29, 2016, FERC issued a notice of a technical conference to be held at FERC’s headquarters on June 27, 28, and 29, 2016 to discuss opportunities for increasing real-time and day-ahead market efficiency through improved software. The notice indicates a detailed agenda will be posted on FERC’s website after April 22, 2016.