The Department of Energy recently released a Quadrennial Energy Review that identified a pressing need for new electricity transmission facilities, among other infrastructure issues. Encouraging new transmission investment has also been a decade-long priority policy goal of FERC reflected in the Energy Policy Act of 2005 and FERC’s seminal Order No. 1000. In furtherance of this … Continue Reading
Technological advances in distributed generation and battery storage and their consequent falling costs have the potential to significantly change the electric utility business model and regulatory policies. While change seems likely, there are varying views on its scope, probability and timing. Two are presented here. One perspective is that fundamental changes in the way electricity … Continue Reading
As discussed in a previous post, new technologies — such as distributed generation, electricity storage, and digital control and communications — are making steady inroads toward transforming the traditional role of electric utilities and their relationship to customers. The future transformed utility is sometimes referred to as “Utility 2.0.” While integrating new technologies into the … Continue Reading
Many forces are converging to focus the debate on the evolving role of utilities, and events and trends are being closely watched by utilities, regulators and policymakers. Just in the last week or so, a few developments indicate that new technologies are likely to be transformative. On the innovation front, the Pacific Northwest National Laboratory … Continue Reading
Significant developments have occurred recently in wholesale electricity markets in the lower Midwest and Western regions of the U.S. Earlier this week, the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission approved a substantial expansion of the Southwest Power Pool (SPP). SPP is a FERC-regulated Regional Transmission Organization that administers the grid across a nine-state footprint in the south … Continue Reading
At its recent public meeting, FERC opened a staff-led proceeding to address price formation and related issues in the RTO/ISO wholesale electricity energy markets. Concerns with whether these organized markets are attracting appropriate levels and types of new generation capacity and the markets’ performance during last winter’s Polar Vortex have raised questions regarding their designs … Continue Reading
In a May 23 opinion, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit in Electric Power Supply Association v. FERC found that FERC has no jurisdiction to establish rules for providing compensation to retail customers that reduce their demand in organized wholesale electricity markets. Over the past decade, demand response has been a fast-growing … Continue Reading
What is the structure and role of the utility of the future? New York is initiating a regulatory process to begin answering this question. New York is considering “a substantial transformation of electric utility practices” to improve efficiency, empower customer choice and encourage greater penetration of clean generation and efficiency technologies, according to the NY … Continue Reading
When Labour leader Ed Miliband made a promise in September 2013 to freeze household fuel bills for 20 months if he were to win next year’s election, he instantly made energy supply and pricing one of the central election topics in the UK. Prime Minister David Cameron’s immediate response was to cut green levies paid … Continue Reading
The increasing reliance on natural gas to fuel electricity generators has sparked a need for more coordination between the operators of gas pipelines and electricity grids. Up to now, markets and operations in the two sectors have proceeded independently, but some differences between them have become problematic. Differences are especially problematic in New England, where … Continue Reading
On March 19, 2014, the California Energy Commission, the state’s primary energy policy and planning agency, announced that it was initiating a regulatory process leading to the regulation of 15 categories of consumer appliances as to usage of electricity, natural gas, and water. This comes in part in response to the three-year drought period in … Continue Reading
On March 7, 2014, the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (“FERC”) directed the North American Electric Reliability Council (“NERC”) to develop new standards for the protection of critical elements of the bulk-power system from physical attacks. In recent years there has been considerable attention paid to the potential for cyber-attacks against the transmission grid. Following a … Continue Reading
Earlier this year, the CFTC and FERC announced an information sharing Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) between the two agencies. The agencies have now announced that they have begun sharing market data pursuant to this MOU. In addition, they have created an Interagency Surveillance and Data Analytics Working Group “to coordinate information sharing between the agencies … Continue Reading
On March 1, the Southwest Power Pool (SPP), transitioned to a more sophisticated electricity market design that, according to SPP, is expected to realize up to $100 million in annual net benefits. SPP is a FERC-regulated Regional Transmission Organization that administers the grid across a 370,000 square mile, nine-state footprint in the south central part … Continue Reading
In the latest salvo in an ongoing controversy over state efforts to subsidize local generation capacity development, the Third Circuit in New Jersey Board of Public Utilities v. FERC upheld a final FERC order approving a PJM Interconnection tariff governing its wholesale capacity market. The court denied appeals by the New Jersey and Maryland utility … Continue Reading
Carbon dioxide (CO2) capture and storage (CCS) technologies, used for decades in industries that could produce revenue from the use of CO2 to offset the high costs, have more recently come to the forefront of clean energy policy as a way to reduce CO2 emissions from new and existing coal-fired power plants. In 2013, President … Continue Reading
The unprecedented spikes in natural gas prices due to the recent harsh winter weather have led FERC to approve temporary yet significant waivers of the pricing rules in the mid-Atlantic and New York organized wholesale electricity markets. Both the PJM Interconnection and the New York ISO attract the resources to keep supply and demand in … Continue Reading
Governments globally are grappling with difficult decisions about green energy policies: maintain green initiatives or remove the strains on economic growth? It is interesting to look across the globe for examples of how different Governments are reacting. In recent months, the UK has opted to “tweak” its green levies to save households an anticipated average … Continue Reading
An earlier post discussed a complaint by the New England Power Generators Association (NEPGA) arguing that the inclusion of a large, high-cost generating plant in an upcoming capacity market auction will artificially suppress clearing prices. NEPGA has withdrawn its complaint because the generating plant’s owner has decided to retire it and, accordingly, the plant will … Continue Reading
An earlier post discussed a complaint filed at FERC by the New England Power Generators Association (NEPGA) arguing that one of New England’s capacity market rules “will have a catastrophic impact on clearing prices” in the upcoming February 3 capacity market auction. NEPGA’s concern is that a large, high-cost generating plant will be counted toward … Continue Reading
One aspect of New England’s capacity market rules “will have a catastrophic impact on clearing prices” in an upcoming auction according to a recent complaint filed at FERC by the New England Power Generators Association (NEPGA). The auction-based wholesale electricity capacity market operated by ISO New England secures one-year commitments to supply electricity three years … Continue Reading
Entergy’s large transmission system and five operating companies in Louisiana, Arkansas, Mississippi and eastern Texas have been integrated into the Midcontinent Independent System Operator (MISO). This extends MISO’s footprint to 15 states from Canada down to the Gulf of Mexico, making MISO the largest Regional Transmission Organization (RTO) by geography. The integration adds about 18,000 … Continue Reading
Here at Inside Energy & Environment we are honored to share that Law360 has named Covington’s energy practice as a 2013 “Energy Practice Group of the Year.” In giving this award, Law360 recognized the breadth of Covington’s practice capabilities (including litigation, transactions, regulatory and government policy) in both the traditional energy and clean energy sectors, … Continue Reading
On January 2, 2014, the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) and the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) entered into two Memoranda of Understanding (the MOUs) to set forth procedures to address circumstances of overlapping jurisdiction (the Jurisdiction MOU) and to share information in connection with market surveillance and investigations into potential market manipulation, fraud or … Continue Reading
