Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC)

Alaskan Gas Development: One Pipeline, Two Systems

FERC may have to carve out a special set of rules if it wants to bring Arctic gas south to the lower-48.

When President Bush signed the Alaska Natural Gas Pipeline Act of 2004, one might have thought that North Slope gas was on the fast track. With all the special provisions that Congress has added to the bill, the reality may prove otherwise.
Byline: 

Bruce W. Radford

Read Entire Article

PJM/Midwest Market: Two Rival Groups Battle Over Grid Pricing

Should transmission owners get paid extra for distance and voltage?

While the Midwest now appears set on competitive bidding for the electricity commodity, taking from PJM such tried-and-true elements as locational marginal pricing, financial transmission rights, and a day-ahead market with a security-constrained dispatch, the region remains split over the pricing of transmission.
Byline: 

Bruce Radford

Read Entire Article

State Regulators: Driven By Reliability

Can natural gas supply keep up with demand for power?

Reliability and utility infrastructure development remain regulators’ top concerns. This year’s Regulators Forum spans the different regions of the country to highlight the most pressing issues facing the industry.
Byline: 

Lori A. Burkhart

Read Entire Article

FERC Versus Bankruptcy Jurisdiction: A Double-Edged Sword

Commission Watch: Be careful what you wish for.

Financially troubled companies and their actual and potential counter-parties in many cases will continue to have difficulty in assessing business, default, and credit risks. The United States Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit ruled in favor of bankruptcy court jurisdiction over requests to reject FERC-jurisdictional wholesale electricity sales contracts. Yet the court did not resolve — and arguably magnified — uncertainties about the standard that should be employed by a bankruptcy court in considering such a request.
Byline: 

John P. Ratnaswamy

Read Entire Article

Debilitating Doctrine

How the filed-rate policy wreaks havoc — and what courts can do about it.

Like many venerable legal rules, the filed-rate doctrine is rarely questioned. Over the last century, it has served many important purposes. However, with deregulated wholesale electric power markets at the federal level and various degrees of deregulation across the states, both the doctrine's continued applicability and usefulness are suspect.
Byline: 

Jim Rossi

Read Entire Article

Power Measurements

Failing the Market-Power Test:

Power Measurement

Failing the Market-Power Test:

How FERC's ruling could affect wholesale power markets.

Byline: 
Jon Ecker
Read Entire Article

People

New Opportunities:

People

New Opportunities:

Peabody Energy named Charles "Chuck" Burggraf group executive of Colorado operations, responsible for Twentymile Coal Co.'s Twentymile Mine near Oak Creek and development of additional coal reserves in Colorado. Burggraf most recently served as operations manager of the Twentymile Mine.

Wisconsin Public Service promoted Charlie Schrock and Larry Borgard. Schrock is now president and COO of operations; Borgard becomes president and COO of energy delivery.

Byline: 
We welcome submissions to People, especially those accompanied by a high-resolution color photograph. E-mail to: photos@pur.com
Read Entire Article

Operations & Maintenance: Who Has the Best Margin?

Operations & Maintenance

Operations & Maintenance

The process of calculating meaningful benchmarks is fraught with pitfalls.

Regulatory reporting requirements for major U.S. utilities provide a wealth of data for benchmarking studies. Both the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) Form 1 for electric utilities and FERC Form 2 for gas utilities involve the reporting of more than 2,500 unique data points per utility per year, across diverse aspects of utility operations, maintenance, and finance.

Byline: 
Peter Manos
Read Entire Article

A Gas Crisis, or Not?

The conclusions made by the NPC gas study raise more questions than they answer.

The National Petroleum Council’s study on future U.S. gas supplies raises more questions than it answers. Before the industry acts on the study’s recommendations, it should re-examine the study’s many shortcomings.
Byline: 

Ken Costello

Read Entire Article