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On Friday, March 30, 2012, the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (the “Commission”) conditionally approved a proposal from the Midwest Independent System Operator (“MISO”) to change its generator interconnection queue procedures to address backlogs and late-state terminations of generation interconnection queue agreements (FERC Docket No. ER12-309-000).  The new procedures are effective January 1, 2012.  The reforms …

The Bonneville Power Administration (BPA) is gearing up for spring with its revised Oversupply Management Protocol (OMP), submitted last week as a compliance filing in the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) proceeding on BPA’s “Environmental Redispatch” policy. BPA’s compliance filing was submitted in response to FERC’s December 7, 2011 order holding that BPA’s Environmental Redispatch policy…

The Bonneville Power Administration (“BPA”) made headlines this week with the release of its Draft Oversupply Management Protocol (the “Draft Oversupply Protocol”). BPA’s Draft Oversupply Protocol is intended to address concerns raised by BPA’s Environmental Redispatch (“ER”) policy of curtailing wind generation without compensation during periods of high water. Back in December, in response to a complaint…

The CUB Policy Center, in partnership with the University of Oregon School of Law,  will be holding its inaugural policy conference: Smart Grid: Today’s Regulation and Tomorrow’s Technology, on Friday, October 21, 2011, at the University of Oregon White Stag Block (70 NW Couch St., Portland, OR 97209).  The luncheon keynote speaker will…

Puget Sound Energy (PSE) has filed with the Washington Utilities and Transportation Commission (WUTC) a Request for Proposals for All Generation Sources (the all-source RFP) and a Request for Proposals for Electric and Demand Side Resources (energy-efficiency RFP). PSE filed the draft all source RFP on August 1, 2011 and plans to issue a…

Yesterday, the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission ("FERC" or "the Commission") issued Order No. 1000 in Docket No. RM10-23-000, a rulemaking proceeding initiated by the Commission on June 17, 2010.  Order No. 1000 is a Final Rule that weighs in at a whopping 620 pages and reforms the Commission’s electric transmission planning and cost allocation requirements for public utility transmission providers. 

The order takes effect 60 days from its publication in the Federal Register and public utility transmission providers are required to make a compliance filing within 12 months of the effective date of the Final Rule.  Compliance filings for interregional transmission coordination and cost allocation mandated by the Final Rule must be submitted within 18 months of the effective date.

Attorneys here at Stoel Rives are reviewing the order and its implications for our clients now, but given the size and scope of the order, this blog will rely on summary information published by the Commission concurrently with the order to provide readers a general idea of its contents.…

Continue Reading FERC Issues Order No. 1000 on Transmission Planning and Cost Allocation by Transmission Owning and Operating Public Utilities

Stoel Rives Partners Alan Merkle, Ed Einowski and Michael Mangelson will participate in the upcoming Workshop on Investment in U.S. Wind Energy by Chinese Companies, held in Beijing, China on June 30, 2011.

The opportunities for mutually beneficial cooperation between U.S. and China wind power industries have become increasingly profitable.  Now more than…

On Tuesday, June 28, 2011, the CPUC will hold an “Electric Energy Storage Workshop” as part of its R10-12-007 proceeding for AB 2514, which defines the process by which the CPUC will consider electric energy storage standards for California’s investor owned utilities. The workshop will be held at in the Golden Gate Room at CPUC’s…

On June 16, 2011, the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) issued a Notice of Inquiry (NOI) seeking comments on what it described as two separate but related issues, both of which apply to electric energy storage (EES). 

First, because FERC is interested in facilitating the development of robust competitive markets to provide ancillary services from…

The Montana Supreme Court has reversed a December 2010 district court decision that found that the developers of the Montana-Alberta Tie Line merchant transmission project do not possess eminent domain authority under Montana law and therefore could not take private land from a nonconsenting landowner.  In its reversal, the state Supreme Court cited House Bill…