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On January 21, 2010, the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (“FERC” or the “Commission”) released a Notice of Proposed Rulemaking (“NOPR”) to allow for credit reforms in the organized wholesale electric markets.  Previously, most wholesale electric markets developed credit practices on a case-by-case basis, depending on individual needs.  Due to the current financial situation, some groups have become concerned that these varying credit practices would not be sufficient to protect the markets, and subsequently the consumers, from the high costs associated with credit risks and credit defaults.

On January 21, 2010, FERC issued a Notice of Inquiry (“NOI”) to look at whether or not to expand its Electric Quarterly Report (“EQR”) filing requirements to those entities excluded from FERC jurisdiction under section 205 of the Federal Power Act (“FPA”).  The NOI will aid FERC in deciding if changes should be made to section 220 of the FPA, as adopted in the Energy Policy Act of 2005(“EPAct 2005”).

On January 18, 2010, the Supreme Court of the United States (“Supreme Court”) denied a request for certiorari by Edison Electric Institute (“EEI”) of a United States Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit (“Court of Appeals”) decision which limited the backstop authority of FERC to instances where a state commission withheld approval of certain interstate electric transmission projects for more than 1 year after the filing of an application for a permit (see the February 20, 2009 edition of the WER).

On January 6, 2010, the FERC approved a request from American Electric Power Services Corporation (“AEP Services”), the wholly owned subsidiary of American Electric Power Company, Inc. (“AEP”), to transfer transmission assets to Electric Transmission Texas, LLC (“Electric Transmission Texas”) under section 203 of the Federal Power Act (“FPA”). 

On December 18, 2009, FERC conditionally approved PJM Interconnection, L.L.C.’s (“PJM”) Order No. 719 compliance filing, which contained proposed revisions to the PJM tariff regarding organized wholesale electricity markets.  The Commission also clarified the market power mitigation roles of PJM and Monitoring Analytics, PJM’s independent market monitoring unit (“MMU”), in the order.