On April 19, 2012, FERC issued a Notice of Inquiry (“NOI”) on the open access and priority rights associated with capacity on interconnection facilities.  The NOI is a direct result of a March 2011 technical conference.

On April 19, 2012, FERC’s Office of Enforcement presented its 2011 State of the Markets report at FERC’s monthly meeting.  The State of the Markets report is an annual presentation of staff’s assessment of natural gas, electric, and other energy markets.

On April 6, 2012, FERC granted a petition for declaratory order filed by PJM Interconnection LLC (“PJM”) regarding the allocation of costs associated with phase angle regulators (“PARs”) installed within the Midwest Independent Transmission System Operator, Inc. (“MISO”).

On April 14, 2012, Duke Energy Corporation (“Duke Energy”) and Progress Energy, Inc. (“Progress Energy”) submitted their response to FERC’s April 10, 2012 request for additional information regarding the companies’ proposed merger.

On March 30, 2012, FERC issued an order on remand from the United States Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit (“7th Circuit”) regarding the appropriate cost allocation methodology for large transmission projects in the PJM Interconnection, L.L.C. (“PJM”) region.  FERC reaffirmed its decision to approve PJM’s postage stamp rate that socialized the cost of high-voltage projects to the entire RTO.

On March 30, 2012, FERC conditionally approved a proposal from the Midwest Independent System Operator (“MISO”) to revise its interconnection queue procedures.  The new procedures are designed to address backlogs and late-stage terminations of generation interconnection agreements.  FERC approved the new procedures to take effect on January 1, 2012.

On April 2, 2012, PJM made a filing with FERC proposing to change its Operating Agreement in an effort to align compensation provided to wind generators for “lost opportunity costs” with the compensation currently offered to conventional generating resources.