FERC Staff issued an October 4 report on Commission-led critical infrastructure protection (CIP) reliability audits completed during fiscal year 2019. The report provides lessons learned and identifies voluntary practices...more
President Donald Trump announced on Monday his intention to nominate FERC General Counsel James Danly to fill the remaining Republican position at FERC. That position has been vacant since the untimely passing of former...more
FERC issued a notice of proposed rulemaking (NOPR) on September 19 announcing its intent to revise key rules governing the status and rights of Qualifying Facilities (QFs). These revisions include proposed changes to the...more
Facing what it deems an “unprecedented number of FOIA requests” for nonpublic information related to utility violations of the North American Electric Reliability Corporation (NERC) critical infrastructure protection (CIP)...more
For the first time, FERC has found that significant investments in an existing licensed hydroelectric facility by a licensee will be considered when establishing the license term in a relicensing proceeding, potentially...more
The Council on Environmental Quality (CEQ) published draft guidance on June 26 to address how agencies implementing environmental reviews under the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) should consider greenhouse gas (GHG)...more
The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC or Commission) on July 18 issued a rule, initially proposed in July 2016, restructuring the way it collects certain data for market-based rate (MBR) purposes and significantly...more
Wholesale electricity sellers that are not government owned are subject to regulation by the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission. Obtaining FERC approval to sell wholesale electricity at “market-based rates” (which is nearly...more
When a business entity that is regulated by the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) is closely related to another business entity, FERC takes the position that under some circumstances it may treat the two different...more
FERC recently approved proposed Reliability Standard CIP-008-6, which expands the mandatory reporting requirements for Cyber Security Incidents that attempt to compromise the operation of the bulk power system. Under the new...more
A recent grid reliability report issued by staff members of the Offices of Electric Reliability and Enforcement within FERC evaluating the upcoming operating season underscored the changing generation resource mix in the...more
FERC Staff issued a report on March 29 on Commission-led critical infrastructure protection (CIP) reliability audits completed for fiscal years 2016 through 2018. The report provides lessons learned from those audits, as well...more
The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission issued a Notice of Proposed Rulemaking on December 20 that would partially relax the competitive market power study requirements that apply to public utilities with Market-Based Rate...more
A Qualifying Cogeneration Facility (Cogen QF) that improves or restores its thermal offtake need not fear the loss of its legal status or impairment of its power sales contracts solely because of its compliance efforts and...more
Regional transmission operator PJM Interconnection, L.L.C. recently changed its operating manual to require that generating entities experiencing direct or indirect changes in ownership or control notify PJM of such changes...more
Inverter disconnect events increasingly pose a reliability risk with the growth of solar generation.
On June 8, the North American Electric Reliability Corporation (NERC) released its report on the loss of 1,200 MW of solar...more
The report shows a continued focus on manipulative conduct in energy markets as well as serious mandatory reliability standards violations, but also shows FERC’s increasing caseload in federal court....more
The decision will likely affect the strategies of enforcement targets in electric market manipulation cases.
For the first time, a federal district judge has held that a review of a Federal Energy Regulatory Commission’s...more
7/29/2016
/ Administrative Law Judge (ALJ) ,
Administrative Proceedings ,
Agency Deference ,
Civil Monetary Penalty ,
De Novo Standard of Review ,
Discovery ,
Due Process ,
Electricity ,
Energy Market ,
Energy Sector ,
Enforcement Actions ,
Federal Power Act ,
Federal Rules of Civil Procedure ,
FERC ,
Market Manipulation ,
Order to Show Cause
Implementing new statutory authority, FERC proposes revised regulations to secure and share Critical Electric Infrastructure Information and penalize its unauthorized disclosure....more
FERC guidance clarifies the scope of the hold-harmless commitments offered in electric utility mergers and acquisitions, but discards its initial proposal to make those commitments open-ended.
On May 19, the Federal...more
FERC proposes to grant itself access to NERC’s Transmission Availability Data System, Generating Availability Data System, and Protection System Misoperations Database.
On September 17, the Federal Energy Regulatory...more
9/22/2015
/ Bulk Electric System ,
Comment Period ,
Confidential Information ,
Energy Sector ,
FERC ,
NERC ,
NPRM ,
Power Outages ,
Power Plants ,
Proposed Regulation ,
Reliability Standards ,
Transmission Grid
The court turned back all challenges to FERC’s order, which imposed major regional transmission planning requirements, concluding that FERC has adequately justified the order and acted within its statutory authority....more
The Commission rejects NERC’s proposal to reform the existing “zero tolerance” to CIP compliance, describing the proposal as too ambiguous and unworkable.
On November 22, the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC...more
Filing reminds generators with significant high-voltage tie lines that they can be subject to Reliability Standards typically applied to transmission owners and transmission operators.
...more