FERC Indicates "M2 Milestone Payment" Should Apply to All MISO Interconnection Customers
On March 29, 2016, FERC granted in part and denied in part a complaint filed by a group of merchant generators (the "Internal MISO Generation") against the Midcontinent Independent System Operator, Inc. ("MISO") which challenged, among other things, MISO's protocol for providing network resource interconnection service ("NRIS") delivery product to generators external to MISO that want to participate in MISO's capacity and energy markets, without requiring the external generators to make an "M2 Milestone Payment." The M2 Milestone Payment is a payment that certain classes of interconnection customers entering the final phase of MISO's interconnection process are required to make to MISO, and is used to help alleviate the costs of necessary network upgrades and restudies that are shifted to other interconnection customers in the event that an interconnection customer withdraws from the interconnection queue. In its order, FERC initiated an investigation to analyze, among other things, whether or not all existing and future MISO interconnection customers should be required to make the M2 Milestone Payment. [Read more →]
DOE to Participate in Developing Clean Line Transmission Project
On March 25, 2016, the United States Secretary of Energy, Ernest Moniz, announced that the Department of Energy ("DOE") will participate in the development of the Plains and Eastern Clean Line Project ("Clean Line"). As a result, the Clean Line project will be the first transmission project that DOE helps develop directly, pursuant to the authority delegated to DOE in Section 1222 of the Energy Policy Act of 2005 ("EPAct 2005"). [Read more →]
FERC Issues Regulatory Findings on Subscription Service for Spare Transmission Equipment
On March 25, 2016, FERC issued regulatory findings in response to a petition for declaratory order from Grid Assurance LLC ("Grid Assurance") regarding the spare transmission equipment service that Grid Assurance plans to offer. [Read more →]
On March 31, 2016, FERC issued an order (1) accepting and suspending Algonquin Gas Transmission, LLC's ("Alongquin") proposed tariff revisions exempting from FERC's capacity release bidding requirements certain types of capacity releases of firm transportation by electric distribution companies ("EDCs") that are participating in state-regulated electric reliability programs and (2) establishing a technical conference to determine whether the proposed tariff revisions are just and reasonable. [Read more →]
The content of this article is intended to provide a general guide to the subject matter. Specialist advice should be sought about your specific circumstances.
