On February 25, 2016, FERC granted Rockies Express Pipeline LLC’s (“Rockies Express”) request for a certificate to construct and operate natural gas compression and ancillary facilities in Ohio and Indiana (“East-to-West Expansion Project”) pursuant to section 7(c) of the Natural Gas Act (“NGA”). Rockies Express stated that the proposed East-to-West Expansion Project will enable it to provide an additional 800,000 dekatherms per day (“Dth/d”) of east-to-west transportation service within Zone 3 of the Rockies Express system.

On February 18, 2016, FERC issued an order conditionally accepting tariff revisions from the New York Independent System Operator, Inc. (“NYISO”). According to the NYISO, the proposed tariff revisions would improve coordination between the electric and natural gas system by giving NYISO authority to prohibit generators from including unauthorized natural gas costs and penalties in reference levels and to reject after the fact requests to recover costs associated with unauthorized natural gas use.

On February 18, 2016, on its own motion, FERC instituted an investigation under section 206 of the Federal Power Act to determine whether the must-offer obligation imposed in the Western Electricity Coordinating Council (“WECC”) footprint during the 2000-2001 California energy crisis is still necessary due to changes in circumstances. Based on its preliminary review, FERC does not believe the must-offer obligation is still just and reasonable and, thus, proposes to terminate the obligation. 

On February 18, 2016, the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (“FERC” or the “Commission”) issued a Notice of Inquiry (“NOI”) seeking comments on the need for reforms to its rules and regulations regarding the provision and compensation of primary frequency response. As described by the Commission, “Frequency Response” is “a measure of an Interconnection’s ability to arrest and stabilize frequency deviations within pre-determined limits following the sudden loss of generation or load.” Primary frequency response is used to maintain an electrical frequency of 60 Hz among the three synchronous interconnections in the United States (Eastern, Western, and the Electric Reliability Council of Texas), when certain contingencies (e.g. the loss of a large generator) disrupt the balance between generation and load.

On February 12, 2016, FERC issued an order accepting the Midcontinent Independent System Operator, Inc.’s (“MISO”) proposed tariff revisions. Specifically, FERC approved, subject to condition, tariff revisions to (1) permit suspended generation resources to participate in the Planning Resource Auction (“Auction”), (2) extend the period of time for a market participant to rescind its Attachment Y Notification from 5 business days to 15 business days after receiving notice by MISO that the Attachment Y study is complete, and (3) allow suspended generation resources to qualify for deferred Generation Verification Test Capacity (“GVTC”) testing. MISO stated that these tariff changes are intended to improve alignment between the Auction and the Attachment Y process in order to remove barriers to Auction participation for generation resources that are in suspension or have filed to be suspended or retired.

On February 9, 2016, FERC issued a notice that it plans to hold a technical conference on implementation issues under the Public Utility Regulatory Policies Act of 1978 (“PURPA”) on June 29, 2016. The technical conference will be held at FERC’s offices. FERC indicated in its notice that the technical…

On January 29, 2016, the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (“FERC”) denied American Electric Power Service Corporation’s (“AEP”) request for a limited waiver of provisions of the PJM Interconnection, L.L.C. (“PJM”) Open Access Transmission Tariff (“Tariff”) and the Reliability Assurance Agreement (“RAA”) that impose capacity performance non-performance charges (“CPNP Charges”) on fixed resource requirement (“FRR”) entities beginning in the 2019/2020 delivery year. AEP’s waiver request stemmed from a June 9, 2015 order (see June 17, 2015 edition of the WER) in which FERC approved PJM’s capacity performance construct (“CP Construct”) that requires PJM load-serving entities to decide by March 7, 2016 whether to participate in PJM’s Reliability Pricing Model (“RPM”) capacity auction or alternatively to elect to be an FRR entity. Under the CP Construct, should AEP elect to be an FRR entity, it will be subject to (i) enhanced capacity performance rules including a requirement to submit to PJM a capacity plan that includes at least 80 percent capacity performance qualifying resources, and (ii) the requirement to implement full financial or physical non-performance assessments.

On February 5, 2016, the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (“FERC” or the “Commission”) accepted proposed revisions to the Joint Operating Agreement (“JOA”) between PJM Interconnection, L.L.C. (“PJM”) and the Midcontinent Independent System Operator, Inc. (“MISO”) that eliminated the $20 million minimum cost threshold that a transmission facility must meet in order to qualify as an Interregional Market Efficiency Project (“IMEP”)—a designation under the JOA that permits the construction of transmission upgrades between PJM and MISO.