At the July 27, 2023, Open Meeting, the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) issued long-awaited Order No. 2023, the Final Rule on Improvements to Generator Interconnection Procedures and Agreements in Docket No. RM22-14-000. The rulemaking arose from the Advanced Notice of Proposed Rulemaking: Building for the Future Through Electric Regional Transmission Planning and Cost
D.C. Circuit Affirms FERC’s Broadview Order Confirming that Qualifying Facilities May Install Greater than 80 MW of Nameplate Generating Capacity
7/8/2024 Update: The U.S. Supreme Court has vacated the D.C. Circuit’s order, discussed below. The D.C. Circuit applied Chevron deference in affirming FERC’s decision in the proceeding below. As a result, the U.S. Supreme Court has vacated and remanded back to the D.C. Circuit to reconsider the case in light of Chevron being overturned.
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FERC Proposes Broad Reforms to Interconnection Process
At its June 16, 2022, open meeting, the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC or Commission) issued a notice of proposed rulemaking (NOPR), Improvements to Generator Interconnection Procedures and Agreements, 179 FERC ¶ 61,194 (2022), proposing reforms to the Commission’s standard generator interconnection procedures and agreements. The goal of the NOPR is to reduce queue
Updated FERC Guidance on Qualifying Facility Certifications
FERC issued two notable orders this spring in Irradiant Partners, LP (Docket No. EL22-8-000) and Dalreed Solar (Docket No. QF20-1037-002) that provide further guidance on qualifying facility (QF) certifications. Here are the key takeaways:
- QF Re-Certifications Should Be Filed Before or At the Time of a Material Change: FERC’s regulations do not contain specific
Solar Power Had a Big Day at FERC
Today was a big day for the solar power industry at the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC).
In its monthly open meeting, FERC announced two decisions that significantly impact the industry — one involving PURPA and the other related to PJM’s Minimum Offer Price Rule (MOPR).
First, FERC reversed its Broadview Solar decision issued in
FERC Issues Final Rule Overhauling PURPA Regulations
Yesterday, the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) issued Order No. 872 and implemented the largest overhaul to FERC’s regulations affecting Qualifying Facilities (QFs) in more than a decade. The order itself is 491 pages in length and there remain plenty of details to unpack in its implementation (including future proceedings to come at the FERC
D.C. Circuit Affirms FERC Order No. 841, Ensuring Storage Access to Wholesale Markets
On Friday, July 10, 2020, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit (“D.C. Circuit”) upheld the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission’s (“FERC”) Order Nos. 841 and 841A, which established a framework for electric storage resources’ (“ESRs”) participation in wholesale markets. The D.C. Circuit rejected the petitioners’ arguments that FERC exceeded its jurisdictional boundaries and
DC Circuit Rejects FERC’s Long-Established Practice of Issuing Tolling Orders
On June 30, the DC Circuit struck down the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission’s (FERC) use of tolling orders to buy additional time in responding to requests for rehearing—a longstanding agency practice that had the effect of materially delaying litigants’ rights to seek judicial review of FERC’s orders. The opinion was issued in a case that
FERC Rules on Order No. 841 Compliance Filings
In February 2018, as part of its efforts to remove barriers for electric storage resources, the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) issued its final rule on electric storage participation in organized markets (Order No. 841). Order No. 841 directed Regional Transmission Organizations (RTOs) and Independent System Operators (ISOs) to revise their tariffs to establish a
Ninth Circuit Strikes Down California ReMAT in Winding Creek Solar Case
On July 29, 2019, the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals affirmed the lower court’s decision in Winding Creek Solar LLC v. Peterman et al., ruling that California’s feed-in tariff for small qualifying facilities (QFs), the Renewable Market Adjusting Tariff (ReMAT), violates the federal Public Utility Regulatory Policies Act (PURPA) (Ninth Circuit Case No. 17-17531). ReMAT provides small QFs of three megawatts (MW) or less with a standard contract for energy offtake, on a first-come, first-served basis. Under ReMAT, rates available to any given generator fluctuate based on the price the developers ahead in the contract queue will accept. The California investor-owned utilities must offer ReMAT contracts up to a program cap of 750 MW, which is proportionately split among the utilities, and then further divided across different types of generation, including baseload and peak/non-peak resources.
The Ninth Circuit ruled that ReMAT violated two tenets of PURPA. Under PURPA, subject to certain exemptions, utilities are required to buy at the avoided cost rate all the power produced by a QF. First, contrary to PURPA’s requirement that a utility buy all of a QF’s output, the Ninth Circuit found that ReMAT limits the amount of energy that utilities are required to purchase from QFs by placing caps on procurement. Second, ReMAT sets a market-based rate for energy from participating QFs, rather than a price based on the utilities’ avoided cost as required under PURPA.
Continue Reading Ninth Circuit Strikes Down California ReMAT in Winding Creek Solar Case