Welcome to our fourth issue of Currents 2025. We are covering a multitude of issues in this edition, but we want to pass along a couple of announcements first. Again, thank you for reading! The Data Center Boom...more
Energy markets in the United States are experiencing rapid changes on both the demand and supply sides of the equation. While various drivers such as a resurgence in manufacturing, data center buildouts for cloud computing...more
On December 16, 2024, the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC or the Commission) issued an Order to Show Cause and Notice of Proposed Penalty proposing to assess staggering civil penalties against American Efficient,...more
On October 17, 2024, the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) issued its final rule on reactive power compensation (Order No. 904)[1], which finalized the plan outlined in its Notice of Proposed Rulemaking (NOPR) to...more
On October 17, 2024, the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (Commission) issued an order revising the methodology for establishing the return on equity (ROE) for transmission owners (TOs) operating within the footprint of...more
On Thursday, April 18, 2024, in a departure from normal procedure, the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (“FERC” or the “Commission”) issued two Sunshine Act Meeting Notices, publishing agendas for both the April 25, 2024...more
The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (“FERC”) will host its January Open Meeting on Thursday, January 18, 2024. The Sunshine Act Meeting Notice (“Notice”) issued January 11, 2024, indicates that FERC intends to take...more
Over the past few years, the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (“FERC” or the “Commission”) and the Department of Energy (“DOE”) have proposed many rules to support the Biden Administration’s push to build transmission...more
On March 16, 2023, FERC found that Commonwealth Edison Company’s (“ComEd”) formula rate protocols under the PJM Interconnection, L.L.C. (“PJM”) Open Access Transmission Tariff (“OATT”) appear to be unjust and unreasonable and...more
On February 16, 2023, FERC addressed arguments raised on rehearing of its August 31, 2022, order accepting Midcontinent Independent System Operator, Inc.’s (“MISO”) proposal to establish a seasonal resource adequacy construct...more
On January 27, 2023, FERC approved the Midcontinent Independent System Operator, Inc. (“MISO”) Transmission Owners’ (“TOs”) proposal to terminate reactive power charges and compensation under MISO’s Open Access Transmission,...more
On January 31, 2023, the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (“Commission” or “FERC”) granted Great River Energy’s (“GRE”) requested incentive rate treatment for GRE’s investment in the Iron Range Project and Big Stone...more
On August 19, 2022, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit (“D.C. Circuit”) denied a Petition for Review from LS Power and two other organizations (“Petitioners”) challenging FERC’s rejection of an earlier-submitted...more
At the open monthly meeting of the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) on Sept. 23, 2021, a joint team composed of the staffs of FERC, the North American Electric Reliability Corporation (NERC) and NERC's various...more
On July 15, 2021, the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (“FERC”) issued an Advanced Notice of Proposed Rulemaking (“ANOPR”), entitled “Building for the Future Through Electric Regional Transmission Planning and Cost.” The...more
The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) issued an Advance Notice of Proposed Rulemaking (ANOPR), "Building for the Future Through Electric Regional Transmission Planning and Cost Allocation and Generator...more
On November 19, 2020, FERC issued Opinion No. 569-B, in which it made minor modifications to the discussion in, but largely reaffirmed, its previously-issued Opinion No. 569-A wherein FERC revised its return on equity (“ROE”)...more
On October 27, 2020, FERC accepted Midcontinent Independent System Operator, Inc.’s (“MISO’s”) proposal to require conventional, non-intermittent capacity resources with Energy Resource Interconnection Service (“ERIS”) to...more
Securing interconnection and transmission rights and completing related upgrades is often the longest lead-time item in an electric generator’s development timeline. At the same time, many potential new power plants are being...more
Our Energy Group interprets the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission’s two latest notices of inquiry seeking comments on changes to a decade-old transmission incentive policy and how to respond to a federal court decision...more
The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (“FERC”) issued a Notice of Proposed Rulemaking (“NOPR”) on December 20 proposing changes to its regulations regarding the horizontal market power analysis required for market-based...more
On July 14, 2017, and several weeks after the Second Circuit rejected challenges to Connecticut’s renewable energy procurement process and renewable energy credit program (see Allco Fin. Ltd. v. Robert J. Klee (Docket Nos....more
Over the past year, the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) has accelerated its efforts to facilitate integration of electric storage projects into wholesale electricity markets subject to its jurisdiction....more
Does FERC have authority to override contracts between a regional transmission organization (RTO) and incumbent utilities giving the latter rights of first refusal (ROFR) to build new regional transmission facilities? It...more
On March 4, 2016, over the objections of the developer and a dissent from Commissioner Cheryl LaFleur, FERC issued an order authorizing the Midcontinent Independent System Operator, Inc. to terminate a generator...more