FERC

Category Error

The trouble with treating grid projects as market players in New York’s capacity auction.

Transmission is not generation. Yet New York ISO makes grid projects qualify as competitive, like gen plants, to get to play in its capacity market.

Partnership, Not Preemption

How state-sponsored planning can fit with FERC’s capacity markets.

FERC-approved capacity markets and state-sponsored resource planning serve different needs. The one shouldn’t pre-empt the other.

Tranche Warfare

The experts do battle over capacity market design.

A FERC conference this fall aired new major policy options for capacity markets. Amid the battle, ISOs are making tactical adjustments.

Innovation Mandate

Meeting the just-and-reasonable standard in a time of change.

Who can say for sure if markets are working? The landscape keeps shifting.

Cross-Border Bargaining

Interregional grid planning under FERC Order 1000.

Territorial fights emerge in the interregional transmission plans proposed for compliance with FERC Order 1000.

Walking the Ports and Services Gauntlet

An approach to complying with NERC’s new cybersecurity standard, CIP-007 (R2).

NERC’s new standards require utilities to lock down network ports and services. Compliance calls for a systematic approach to cataloging and tracking.

Walking the Fuzzy Bright Line

The legality of state ROFR laws under FERC Order 1000.

States have passed laws to bypass FERC Order 1000 and its reforms favoring private grid developers. Could those laws themselves fall under attack?

Bargain or Bonanza

Is discounted cash flow (DCF) still a reliable tool for determining equity cost?

The time-honored discounted cash flow method for determining appropriate utility returns falls short when interest rates are low. Inadequate ROEs ultimately increase cost of capital and wipe away any temporary savings.

FERC vs. Idaho

PURPA and the future of avoided cost rates.

A tussle between Idaho and the feds exemplifies the flood of petitions that QFs have filed during the past several years, asking FERC to enforce or confirm their PURPA-guaranteed rights.

Improving Capacity Markets

FERC decision on PJM mitigation is a model for other ISOs and RTOs.

Capacity markets have been a significant source of controversy since the inception of competitive wholesale markets. While there are many regulatory questions to be answered in constructing capacity markets, the primary goal of such markets should be to attract capacity that is competitively priced.