On March 5, 2013, FERC announced the details of its upcoming technical conference focused on the scheduling practices of natural gas and electric markets.  The technical conference is the second of two technical conferences ordered by FERC in a November 15, 2012 order to address common issues raised during regional conferences (see November 16, 2012 edition of the WER).  The first technical conference was held on February 13, 2013, and addressed communication issues between the two industries (see February 14, 2012 edition of the WER).

On Thursday, February 28, 2013, the North American Electric Reliability Corporation (“NERC”) filed proposed revisions to its Standard Processes Manual (“SPM”) with FERC.  The SPM contains the procedures that govern NERC’s development of mandatory reliability standards.  NERC explained that the purpose of updating the SPM is to streamline the drafting, commenting and balloting processes used to develop mandatory reliability standards, and to provide greater clarity throughout the entire process.

On February 21, 2013, FERC authorized Cheniere Creole Trail Pipeline, L.P. (“Creole Trail”) to modify its current pipeline system in Cameron and Beauregard Parishes, Louisiana so that it will allow bi-directional flow to deliver domestic gas to the liquefied natural gas (“LNG”) terminal owned by Sabine Pass LNG, L.P. (“Sabine Pass”).

On Thursday, February 21, 2013, FERC issued a Final Rule approving a new regional reliability standard, PRC-006-NPCC-1, designed to ensure the development of an effective automatic underfrequency load shedding (“UFLS”) program in the Northeast Power Coordinating Council (“NPCC”) Region.

On February 15, 2013, the United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit (“D.C. Circuit”) issued an order upholding FERC’s determination that the rates stemming from an ISO New England, Inc. (“ISO-NE”) Forward Capacity Market are not contractual, although challenges to the forward capacity market rates are subject to the same Mobile-Sierra public interest (as opposed to the just and reasonable) standard as contracted rates.  This case is significant because the D.C. Circuit upheld the use of a legal standard normally applied in contractual situations to rates produced by tariff provisions. 

On February 21, 2013, FERC issued the first two orders concerning Order No. 1000 Compliance Filings.  In its first order, FERC rejected compliance filings by Duke Energy Carolinas LLC and Carolina Power and Light Company, d/b/a Progress Energy Carolinas (“Duke-Progress”) and Alcoa Power Generating, Inc. (“Yadkin”) for failing to form a compliant transmission planning region.  In its second order, FERC granted Maine Public Service Company (“MPS”) waiver of the regional transmission planning and cost allocation requirements of Order No. 1000 and conditionally accepted additional Open Access Transmission Tariff (“OATT”) changes MPS submitted regarding its local transmission planning process, subject to further compliance.

On February 21, 2013, FERC issued a final rule incorporating updated business practice standards of the North American Energy Standards Board (“NAESB”) regarding the measurement and verification of demand response and energy efficiency.  The final rule revises FERC’s regulations (18 C.F.R. § 38.2) by referencing NAESB’s Phase II Demand Response Measurement and Verification, and its Wholesale Energy Efficiency Measurement and Verification standards.  These standards only apply to wholesale markets administered by regional transmission organizations (“RTOs”) and independent system operators (“ISOs”).

On February 8, 2013, FERC issued an order granting an extension of time for electronic quarterly report (“EQR”) filers to include electronic tag (“e-Tag”) ID data in their EQRs.  The Commission delayed the implementation of the e-Tag ID data requirement previously set forth in Order No. 768 (see September 28, 2012 edition of the WER).