Of interest to entities who hold, or might seek, authorization from the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC or the "Commission") to engage in sales for resale of electric energy, capacity or ancillary services at market-based rates under Section 205 of the Federal Power Act,1 on March 18, 2021, FERC further extended, by three months, the effective and compliance dates for its new market-based rate relational database filing requirements under Order No. 860.2 This extension follows a prior, six-month extension issued in May 2020.3

In short, FERC's Order No. 860 "revised certain aspects of the substance and format of information Sellers," who are holders of or applicants for market-based rate authority, "submit to the Commission for market-based rate purposes. Among other things, the Commission adopted the approach to collect market-based rate information in a relational database," rather than continuing to do so through market-based rate applications and periodic notices of changes in status filed by Sellers as required by FERC's regulations.4

This further extension relates to FERC's request, also issued on March 18, 2021, for comments on a separate proposal to "to require that Sellers whose ultimate upstream affiliate(s) own their voting securities [in such Sellers] pursuant to a [Federal Power Act] section 203(a)(2) blanket authorization . . . provide in the relational database the docket number of the section 203(a)(2) blanket authorization, and the utility ID types and the utility IDs of the upstream affiliates whose securities were acquired pursuant to that section 203(a)(2) blanket authorization."5 Comments on that proposal are due 60 days after publication of that request in the Federal Register.6

Below are the revised Order No. 860 dates:7

Activity Prior Schedule New Schedule
Relational Database Testing Period Through Mar. 21, 2021

Through Jun. 30, 2021
Order No. 860 Effective Date Apr. 1, 2021

Jun. 1, 2021
Relational Database "Go-Live" Date Apr. 1, 2021 Jul. 1, 2021
Sellers to Create Required Identifiers in the Market-Based Rate Portal and Prepare Baseline Submissions Apr. 1, 2021 - Jun. 30, 2021 Jul. 1, 2021 - Sep. 30, 2021
Baseline Submission Deadline By Aug. 2, 2021 By Nov. 2, 2021
First Change in Status Deadline By Aug. 31, 2021 By Nov. 30, 2021
Second Change in Status Deadline (under Quarterly Schedule) By Oct. 31, 2021 By Jan. 31, 2022

Footnotes

1. See Data Collection for Analytics & Surveillance and Mkt.-Based Rate Purposes, Final Rule – Delay of Compliance, 174 FERC ¶ 61,221, at P 2, n.2 (2021) ("Notice of Delay").

2. See Data Collection for Analytics & Surveillance and Mkt.-Based Rate Purposes, Order No. 860, 84 Fed. Reg. 36,390 (Jul. 26, 2019), 168 FERC ¶ 61,039 (2019), order on reh'g, Order No. 860-A, 85 Fed. Reg. 13,013 (Mar. 6, 2020), 170 FERC ¶ 61,129 (2020).

3. Notice of Delay at P 2, n.4.

4. See Data Collection for Analytics & Surveillance and Mkt.-Based Rate Purposes, Notice Seeking Comments, 174 FERC ¶ 61,214, at P 2 (2021) (citing Order No. 860 at P 4).

5. Id. at P 1.

6. Id. at P 23.

7. See Notice of Delay, Appendix.

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