Today, the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (“FERC” or “Commission”) announced that it will convene regional conferences to determine whether transmission providers’ planning efforts can meet the “challenges posed by wider integration of regional energy resources into the nation’s power grid for the benefit of consumers.”

On Tuesday, FERC issued a notice requesting supplemental comments to its proposed Smart Grid Policy Statement and Action Plan that was released in March (see March 20, 2009 edition of the WER) due to the release of two Smart Grid funding opportunities offered by the U.S. Department of Energy (“DOE”).

On May 11, 2009, the Commission approved tariff revisions made by the New York Independent System Operator, Inc. (“NYISO”) that will treat wind resources as flexible resources. The revisions will require wind resources to “dispatch down” in order to resolve transmission system constraints.

On May 8, 2009, FERC rejected proposed amendments to Entergy Services, Inc.’s (“Entergy”) System Agreement regarding allocation of bandwidth payments and receipts, finding that the Commission does not have jurisdiction to determine the allocation of such costs between state jurisdictions.

On May 6, 2009, the North American Electric Reliability Corporation (“NERC”) approved revisions to eight cyber security standards for America’s bulk power system as part of their standards revision work plan. The primary revision was the removal of “reasonable business judgment” language in response to concerns FERC voiced in Order No. 706 issued on January 18, 2008.

On Wednesday, the Commission approved two separate Audit Reports from the Division of Audits in the Office of Enforcement (“OE”), one for the New York Independent System Operator, Inc. (“NYISO”) and one for Southwest Power Pool, Inc. (“SPP”).

On April 20, 2009, Connecticut Attorney General Richard Blumenthal filed a complaint with the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (“FERC” or “Commission”) claiming that unnamed power suppliers used a loophole in the Independent System Operator of New England’s (“ISO-NE”) market rules to receive $85.8 million in capacity payments while failing to deliver energy when called upon by ISO-NE. Blumenthal’s complaint asks the Commission to make the companies’ names public and to order them to disgorge their profits.

On Wednesday, FERC Chairman Jon Wellinghoff addressed a number of ongoing energy issues during a U.S. Energy Association forum, including his belief that renewable energy and demand-side management could significantly mitigate and perhaps eliminate the need for traditional baseload power plants. Additionally, Chairman Wellinghoff discussed the Commission’s ability to regulate carbon credit markets.