Energy Legal Blog

After designating two bilateral Mid-Columbia (Mid-C) electricity contracts traded on the Intercontinental Exchange (ICE) as significant price discovery contracts (SPDC), the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC), in July 9th orders, designated four additional ICE electricity contracts used in organized Regional Transmission Organization (RTO) markets as SPDCs.  The four contracts are the SP-15 Financial Day-Ahead LMP Peak (SPM) and SP-15 Financial Day-Ahead LMP Off-Peak (OFP) contracts for the California ISO and the PJM Western Hub Real Time Peak (PJM) and PJM Western Hub Real Time Off-Peak (OPJ) contracts for the PJM Interconnection.  SPDC designation subjects these contracts to heightened regulatory oversight and reporting requirements.  At the same time, the CFTC issued two other orders finding that two daily SP-15 and two daily PJM contracts were not SPDCs.  (more…)

The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) on June 17 proposed a rulemaking that, if implemented, has the potential to complete the opening of the transmission grid, an undertaking that began fourteen years ago. Earlier reforms, starting with FERC’s Order No. 888 in 1996, offered for the first time non-discriminatory open access to those who sought to interconnect with and use the grid.  In 2007 Order No. 890 expanded customer participation in the planning and operation of the grid. The new rule proposes to allow all power industry participants to contribute equally to the future design, configuration, and even ownership of the grid.  Public comments on the proposed rulemaking must be submitted to the agency by August, 30, 2010. (more…)

FERC’s Office of Energy Policy and Innovation (OEPI) last week requested comments regarding rate policies, as well as accounting and financial reporting requirements, for new electric-storage technologies such as flywheels and chemical batteries.  OEPI’s goal is to “better understand the various ways electric storage can be used, where each of those uses would fall within established jurisdictional boundaries, and the appropriate rate treatment, accounting classification, and reporting requirements for those uses.”  Comments are due 45 days after the Notice is published in the Federal Register. (more…)

In a trend that is becoming more common, the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (“FERC”) issued a series of letter orders in late January 2010, extending the time for its review of several settlements of alleged violations of the NERC Reliability Standards that had been filed with it by the North American Electric Reliability Corporation (“NERC”).  Rather than accepting those settlements with the supporting evidence that had been provided to it, FERC posited a series of Data and Document Requests to NERC and the three involved regional entities: SERC Reliability Corporation (“SERC”), the Western Electricity Coordinating Council (“WECC”) and ReliabilityFirst Corporation (“RFC”).  (more…)

PR News announced that Bracewell & Giuliani’s Energy Legal Blog will be recognized as the best “Legal PR Blog” at its annual Corporate Social Responsibility & Legal Awards Luncheon on February 24, 2010 at the National Press Club in Washington, D.C. This award recognizes an outstanding and influential law-related weblog or online journal written by a representative of the organization with the goal of espousing the brand or a certain message and written with flair and personality.

“Managing a crisis and working with legal counsel are two areas of communication that will always be a part of a PR professional’s responsibilities,” notes Diane Schwartz, vice president of PR News. “The Legal PR Awards shines a light both on how law firms are communicating to their stakeholders and to how the PR industry is in the driver’s seat when a crisis hits.”

More information on the award program and this year’s winners is available at http://www.prnewsonline.com/awards/csr2009_event-finalists.html.

On November 13, FERC cleared 564 enforcement cases that the North American Electric Reliability Corporation (NERC) had presented to the agency for reliability rule violations. Most of the violations were “self-reported” and were assigned low or medium risk factors, the most common being failure to develop sabotage reporting procedures, with the second leading violation being failure to implement maintenance and testing programs. NERC and the Regional Entities assessed monetary penalties to eight violators that had a total of 23 violations (4% of the all violations), amounting to $91,000 in fines. (more…)