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FERC

Planning vs. Partiality

A case study from PJM on competitive procurement of regional transmission under FERC Order 1000.

What happens to FERC Order 1000, and its vaunted quest for fairness and transparency, when regional grid planners ask for competitive bids to solve a pressing transmission need, but then modify some of the project proposals, unilaterally, in an honest effort to improve them?
Byline: 

John Dalton

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Risk Holds Sway

Interest rates not always controlling for return on equity. 

(November 2014) Our annual survey of rates of return on common equity authorized by state public utility commissions in recent rate cases for electric and gas retail distribution utilities.
Byline: 

Phillip S. Cross

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$9 Billion at Risk

If PJM markets should lose demand response as a capacity resource.

The AEMA sees the self-help DR revolution as a key to America’s recent industrial renaissance: “If demand response is removed from wholesale markets,” the group says, then “the electric grid is back to the rotary phone.”
Byline: 

Bruce W. Radford

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The Politics of Carbon

Supreme Court may ultimately clarify EPA’s authority under Clean Power Plan.

The Supreme Court questions federal agency authority over greenhouse gas emissions in the recent case of Utility Air Regulatory Group v. EPA.
Byline: 

Ken Silverstein

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FERC's Folly

Remand Order 745, fix the compensation scheme, but retain federal jurisdiction.

Why the D.C. Circuit should rehear the appeal of FERC Order 745, and how it should rule.
Byline: 

Robert L. Borlick

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Utility Capital in the Twenty-First Century

What FERC might learn from Thomas Piketty and his best-selling book on wealth and income.

Thomas Piketty’s best-selling book, “Capital in the Twenty-First Century,” shows why utility transmission owners should not enjoy excessive returns.
Byline: 

David E. Pomper

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Enforcement Times Two

FERC and CFTC begin sharing information to target market manipulation in the energy industry.

Closer coordination between FERC and CFTC (and perhaps also with DOJ) will increase enforcement risk for energy industry traders.
Byline: 

Steven F. Reich, Charles F. Connolly and J. Porter Wiseman

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Reliability vs. Resiliency

Prevent problems, or wait and respond when something happens?

FERC holds conference on electric reliability, asks about standards for resiliency – not just to prevent problems, but how to respond once they occur.
Byline: 

Bruce W. Radford

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Waiting for the Next Polar Vortex

How recent events could prove a harbinger of winters to come.

The winter of 2013-14 offered up a perfect storm of natural gas price spikes and threats to electric reliability. Expect more of the same.
Byline: 

Judah Rose

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The Powhatan Matter

Market manipulation versus the right to make a profit.

Harvard professor Bill Hogan claims FERC is wrong to find market manipulation where traders simply make profits on market defects known to all.
Byline: 

Bruce W. Radford

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