On July 16, 2009, FERC granted a complaint filed by Pepco Energy Services, Inc. (“Pepco”) challenging provisions of PJM’s Open Access Transmission Tariff regarding peak-hour-period availability penalties for infrequently-run generation units. The Commission determined that the market rules governing the peak-hour-period availability penalties for infrequently-run generators were unjust and unreasonable, and established new rates to be applied as of the date of the complaint (April 22, 2008).

On July 16, 2009, the Commission adopted staff’s conclusion that there were no deceptive or fraudulent actions taken by market participants when they placed circuitous power delivery schedules around the Lake Erie region in 2008. While the Commission did not find any market manipulation that directly led to the Lake Erie “loop flow” issues, it did order market operators in New York and surrounding regions to find long-term, comprehensive solutions to the problem and submit those solutions to the Commission within six months.

On July 16, 2009, the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (“FERC” or “Commission”) issued Order No. 719-A affirming its decision in Order No. 719 that removing barriers to demand response is consistent with FERC’s duty to ensure the sound operation of organized wholesale electric markets. However, FERC exempted small utilities that distributed up to 4 million megawatt-hours (“MWh”) during the previous year.

On April 24, 2009, the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (“Commission” or “FERC”) approved a wind transmission cost allocation proposal by the Southwest Power Pool, Inc. (“SPP”), designed to reduce barriers to integrating wind power in the region and thereby expand the availability of wind generation resources.

On June 18, 2009, FERC released a national assessment detailing demand response potential with a state-by-state analysis. The report estimates that demand response potential can reduce peak electricity demand by 4% to 20%, which translates to between 38 gigawatts (“GW”) and 188 GW, by 2019.