FERC v. Ohio
Will the Feds weigh in on the great Buckeye brawl?
Ohio ratepayers could prosper if natural gas prices rise in the next few years, boosting revenues when the utilities resell into PJM markets.
FERC
Order 745: Challenge to Plain Old Power Markets
The Order will extend application of load-reducing technologies and marketing to a new class of services.
The marginal external benefits provided by demand response prove more than sufficient to overcome concerns that paying LMP was too expensive.
Obligations and Opportunities: Wires Cos. Plug In to Clean Power Plan
Vol. 1: “If It’s Stayed, Why Should I Go?”
When the the Clean Power Plan is reviewed on the merits in Fall 2017, Justice Scalia will have been replaced, and the newest justice may hold the key to the fate of the plan.
The Long and Short of Grid Congestion
FTRs make hedging possible, but can PJM ensure full funding without playing favorites?
Financial traders believe PJM’s proposal discriminates since they are more likely to hold counter-flow FTRs.
Harbinger or Anomaly?
As it becomes more routine for developers to offer cost containment commitments, it will become increasingly difficult for RTOs to ignore the cost impact of proposals.
Are recent transmission developer selections based on cost containment a harbinger of the future or just an anomaly?
FERC Revises Market-Based Rate Procedures
Order 816 indicates the commission is scrutinizing the underlying calculations of market power analyses.
This revision could have significant impact on market power analyses of certain franchised utilities and affiliated MBR entities.
Demand Response: Getting the Prices Right
The rule works in the direction of more regulation to hamper innovation and counteracts incentives the rule creates.
FERC made a mistake in Order 745 and should change the pricing rule.
High Stakes at the High Court
U.S. Supreme Court to decide demand response case.
Cost-conscious commercial and industrial customers may be oblivious to the legal issues surrounding their energy choices, but their demand response providers are not. The U.S. Supreme Court will now decide whether those services will be regulated by the federal government or state utility commissions.
Constitutional Controversy
Can EPA’s Clean Power Plan Pass Muster?
The Clean Power Plan’s fate may hinge on whether the federal government is seen as usurping states’ rights under the Fifth and Tenth Amendments. Harvard’s Law School professors debate the issue.
How to Talk to Regulators
Why some proceedings blow up, while others reach consensus.
The core of a good regulatory proceeding is a conversation.