Posts from — April 2011

On April 21, 2011, FERC released a Notice of Proposed Rulemaking (“NOPR”) that would require non-public utilities with annual wholesale sales greater than four million megawatt hours (“MWh”) and non-public utility balancing authorities with more than one million MWh in wholesale sales to submit Electric Quarterly Reports (“EQRs”).  [Read more →]

The Commission recently issued two orders addressing controversial capacity market issues.  On April 12, 2011, the Commission approved a rate filing by PJM Interconnection, LLC (“PJM”) that will modify the minimum offer price rule (“MOPR”) to prevent what PJM called the threat of uneconomic entry of new generation (the “PJM Order”).  On April 13, 2011, the Commission addressed issues in connection with ISO-New England’s (“ISO-NE”) Forward Capacity Market (“FCM”) and ordered ISO-NE to develop an offer-floor mitigation “construct” similar to that of PJM and the New York Independent System Operator (“NYISO”) in order to deal with Out of Market (“OOM”) resources suppressing clearing prices below competitive levels (“ISO-NE Order”). [Read more →]

On April 19, 2011, Ken Salazar, the Secretary for the U.S. Department of Interior (“Interior”) announced that the Cape Wind Energy Project’s Construction and Operation Plan (“COP”) received approval from the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management, Regulation and Enforcement (“BOEMRE”).  [Read more →]

On April 12, 2011, California Governor Jerry Brown signed into law SBX1-2 mandating the state adopt a thirty-three percent renewable portfolio standard (“RPS”) by the year 2020.  [Read more →]

On April 8, 2011, the Midwest Independent System Operator, Inc. (“MISO”) filed a petition for Declaratory Order (“Petition”) from the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (“FERC” or the “Commission”) that the terms of the Joint Operating Agreement (“JOA”) currently in effect between MISO and the Southwest Power Pool (“SPP”) concerning sharing of transmission capacity on a common path will remain applicable to Entergy Arkansas, Inc. (“Entergy”) if Entergy becomes a transmission-owning member of MISO. [Read more →]