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On September 12, 2013, FERC issued an order (“September 12 Order”) granting in part and denying in part requests for clarification filed by Puget Sound Energy, Inc. (“Puget”) and Powerex Corporation (“Powerex”) of a May 20, 2013 order (“May 20 Order”) accepting for filing certain non-conforming service agreements for conditional firm point-to-point transmission service executed between Puget and Morgan Stanley Capital Group, Inc. (“Morgan Stanley”).

On Thursday, September 5, 2013, FERC granted eBay Inc. (“eBay”) market-based rate authority, effective August 26, 2013.  eBay is developing an approximately 6 MW fuel cell generation facility at its South Jordan, Utah data center.  While the facility will primarily be used to provide onsite power for the data center, eBay sought blanket authority to sell any excess energy that is produced.

On September 3, 2013, FERC approved proposed revisions by the North American Electric Reliability Corporation (“NERC”) to simplify its process for exempting companies from compliance with Critical Infrastructure Protection (“CIP”) reliability standards.  According to NERC, the new process will operate more efficiently by streamlining the processes for submission, review, acceptance or rejection, and modification of previously accepted Technical Feasibility Exceptions (“TFE”).

On Monday, August 29, 2013 FERC issued three civil penalty orders after concluding that three separate entities manipulated ISO New England, Inc.’s (“ISO-NE”) Day-Ahead Load Response Program (“DALRP”).  Specifically, FERC found that Lincoln Paper and Tissue, LLC (“Lincoln”), Competitive Energy Service, LLC (“CES”), and CES’s managing member Dr. Richard Silkman (“Silkman”) each violated FERC’s Prohibition on Market Manipulation by creating phantom load reductions in order to defraud ISO-NE of demand response payments.

On August 29, 2013, the Department of Energy (“DOE”) issued a request for information (“RFI”), seeking comments on its draft Integrated, Interagency Pre-Application (“IIP”) process.  This IIP process is aimed at establishing a “coordinated series of meetings and other actions” before a federal agency would accept a high-voltage transmission line application or take other action to trigger federal review.

On Thursday, July 18, 2013, FERC issued Order No. 784, the final rule on third-party provision of ancillary services and the accounting and financial reporting for new electric storage facilities (“Final Rule”).  FERC stated that the Final Rule, which will revise its regulations to reform its “Avista” policy, will provide additional rate flexibility for purchasers and sellers of ancillary services and increase transparency and competition in ancillary services markets.  Specifically, FERC has provided new means by which sellers can demonstrate a lack of market power in third-party sales of ancillary services in order to obtain expanded market-based rate authority for sales of such services.

On July 23, 2013, the United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit (“DC Circuit”) denied energy trader Moussa Kourouma’s challenge to a FERC order that found he violated market behavior rules and ordered him to pay a civil penalty of $50,000.  The DC Circuit rejected Kourouma’s arguments that FERC committed procedural and substantive errors, and instead agreed with FERC’s finding that an evidentiary hearing was unnecessary in this case.

On July 18, 2013, FERC issued a Notice of Proposed Rulemaking (“NOPR”) to explicitly authorize the sharing of non-public operational information between interstate natural gas pipelines and public electric utilities that own, operate, or control transmission facilities for the sale of electric energy in interstate commerce.  The proposal would revise FERC’s regulations to allow for information sharing that the pipeline or utility deems necessary for the purpose of promoting reliable service and operational planning.

On Tuesday, July 16, 2013, FERC ordered Barclays Bank and four of its traders to pay over $487 million for manipulation of electric energy markets in and around California from 2006 to 2008.  Specifically, Barclays was directly assessed $435 million in civil penalties and ordered to disgorge $34.9 million in unjust profits.  Three of the four traders were each assessed a penalty of $1 million, while Scott Connelly was assessed a $15 million penalty.

On July 10, 2013, FERC approved a Stipulation and Consent Agreement (“Agreement”) between the Office of Enforcement (“Enforcement”), the North American Electric Reliability Corporation (“NERC”) and Southwest Power Pool, Inc. (“SPP”), for alleged violations of Reliability Standards in conjunction with SPP’s reliability coordination of the bulk power system.  Following an investigation by Enforcement, SPP was fined $50,000 and required to submit semi-annual compliance filings.