Notice of Proposed Rulemaking (NOPR)

A recent amendment to the Federal Power Act (FPA) that will become effective March 27, 2019 sets a $10 million threshold for requiring Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) prior approval of public utility mergers and consolidations.  That amendment also calls for FERC to adopt a rule requiring public utilities to simply notify FERC of mergers and consolidations with a value over $1 million but less than $10 million.  At its recent public meeting, FERC approved a Notice of Proposed Rulemaking (NOPR) regarding that notice requirement.  These provisions, when in effect, will place mergers and consolidations under the same value threshold as other types of transactions and eliminate the need for low-value mergers and consolidations to secure FERC approval.  These legislative and regulatory changes will be of interest to entities that anticipate merging or consolidating facilities that are subject to the jurisdiction of FERC.
Continue Reading FERC Proposes Notice Requirement For Public Utility Mergers and Acquisitions Under New Monetary Threshold

Electric storage resources such as batteries and flywheels are shaping the grid of the future. The ability of these resources to absorb and discharge electricity gives the resources operational flexibility that allows them to provide a variety of services to help keep the power grid in balance.  Energy storage installations in the U.S. grew 100% in 2016.  Most of the new resources were utility scale but 25% were commercial and residential systems.

As discussed previously in this blog, FERC issued a Notice of Proposed Rulemaking (NOPR) intended to knock down barriers to storage resource participation in the organized wholesale electricity markets administered by Regional Transmission Organizations (RTOs) and Independent System Operators (ISOs).[1]  FERC’s proposal would require each RTO to revise its tariff in two ways:

  • Establish market rules that recognize the physical and operational characteristics of storage resources and accommodate their participation. Storage resources that participate in wholesale markets must do so under rules designed for other types of resources.
  • Allow distributed energy resource aggregators to participate in the markets. Individual distributed energy resources may be too small to meet minimum size requirements or have difficulty satisfying operational performance requirements of the markets. Allowing these resources to participate through aggregations can enable them to satisfy requirements that they could not meet on a stand-alone basis.

FERC received comments on its proposal from more than seventy entities across a broad  spectrum of the industry.  This post summarizes the major issues raised in the comments.Continue Reading FERC Gets Comments on Electric Storage Proposal