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On November 3, 2010, FERC denied Florida Power & Light Company’s (“FPL”) petition to reverse previous orders on FERC’s jurisdiction over interconnection agreements between a utility and a qualifying facility (“QF”).  FERC upheld Commission precedent on QF interconnection agreements as being consistent with the Federal Power Act (“FPA”), the Public Utility Regulatory Policies Act of 1978 (“PURPA”), and the FERC policies. 

On October 21, 2010, the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (“FERC” or the “Commission”) conditionally approved the North American Electric Reliability Corporation’s (“NERC”) 2011 business plan and budget (“2011 Budget”), as well as the 2011 business plan and budget for the Regional Entities and Western Interconnection Regional Advisory Board (“WIRAB”). 

On October 21, 2010, the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (“FERC” or the “Commission”) released Order No. 741, Credit Reforms in Organized Wholesale Electric Markets.   The new rule finalizes credit reforms to allow for more liquidity while protecting consumer interests.

On Monday, October 18, 2010, Northeast Utilities (“NU”) and NSTAR announced their companies’ Boards of Trustees unanimously approved a merger agreement for a large utility valued at $17.5 billion.  This newly-formed utility will be known as Northeast Utilities. 

On October 21, 2010, the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (“FERC” or the “Commission”) clarified how California may promote new generation resources in a way that does not contradict federal laws (the “October 21 Clarification”).  The Commission also denied the California Public Utilities Commission’s (“CPUC”) request for rehearing.

On the heels of receiving dozens of submissions in response to the Midwest Independent System Operator, Inc.’s (“MISO”) “MVP” cost allocation filing, (see July 23, 2010 edition of the WER) the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (“FERC”) this week received well over one hundred submissions in response to its Notice of Proposed Rulemaking (“NOPR”) on transmission planning and cost allocation (see June 18, 2010 edition of the WER). Interestingly, FERC also issued a Notice indicating that reply comments in the NOPR docket would not be due until November 12, 2010, which indicates that agency action on the NOPR is highly unlikely before the end of the year.

On September 17, 2010, FERC accepted proposed revisions to PJM Interconnection, L.L.C.’s (“PJM”) Operating Agreement, and Attachment K to their open access transmission tariff (“Tariff”).  The changes represented a “temporary solution” to prevent alleged manipulation in PJM’s energy markets.  The September filings were preceded by a lengthy history, as summarized below.