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Ari Peskoe Profile picture
Ari Peskoe
@AriPeskoe
Director of the Electricity Law Initiative at Harvard Law. Tweets about energy law and policy. Tweets are my own and do not represent views of anyone else.
Dec 6 • 8 tweets • 3 min read
Yet another illustration that monopolist utilities have free rein in local transmission development.

But how was FERC tipped off that PSE&G was hiding info from PJM and misleading stakeholders?

I have a theory...
utilitydive.com/news/pseg-ferc… In 2015, a merchant transmission developer filed a complaint alleging that PJM was overcharging for network upgrades. A key aspect of its claims related to a lack of transparency about the study process.

In the course of the trial, PSE&G’s conduct took center stage.
Jul 29 • 14 tweets • 3 min read
We’ve all had some fun with this latest “campaign promise,” but how does it intersect with Project 2025’s agenda about power markets and electric utilities?

A quick look at what Project 2025 says about interstate wholesale electric power markets… Buried within a chapter about the Dept of Energy, Project 2025 dedicates 7 pgs to FERC, with 2 about natural gas pipelines and LNG facilities.

So I’m focusing on 5 pages here written by former FERC Comm’r McNamee. I'll take what I can get!
Jul 24 • 16 tweets • 3 min read
The utilities’ goal is to control regional transmission development.

Here’s how:
1) Give the PJM Board authority to change regional planning goals.
2) Gain power to preempt PJM actions or challenge them in secret before PJM acts.
3) Disempower PJM Members and everyone else. First, PJM covers 20% of the US population and GDP. Only a few companies dominate high-voltage transmission in the region. There's a lot at stake.

(The brown regions in the map include Duke Energy, ConEd, PSE&G, PPL -- each another giant electric utility) Image
Jun 13 • 11 tweets • 3 min read
After skimming 50 filings, I've filled in the scorecard. Many other entities are opposing this rule on other grounds. The chart highlights arguments that I see as most damaging to FERC's long-term ability to regulate transmission.
🧵
Image Quick explanation of the top 3 rows:
Major Questions Doctrine was the product of a 2022 US Supreme Court case, WV v. EPA. Along with @PolicyIntegrity, I rebutted claims about MQD and this rule here - eelp.law.harvard.edu/wp-content/upl…
May 13 • 12 tweets • 3 min read
Order No. 1920 to mark the year Congress created the Federal Power Commission, whose initial purpose was to federalize hydro dam licensing. Good one. An unflattering view of the initial FPC -- shfg.wildapricot.org/resources/Docu…
Image
Mar 22 • 14 tweets • 3 min read
Scorching hot FERC take from 1976:
The Supreme Court's statement that the purpose of the Power and Gas Acts is to encourage plentiful supplies at reasonable prices is wrong and should be discarded. The Court's conclusion is poorly supported by precedent and history. Image Above, the conclusion is repeated by states suing to end DOE's LNG pause and was said yesterday by future Commissioner See at the confirmation hearing.

Here's why it's wrong and why this matters:
Feb 7 • 10 tweets • 2 min read
PJM utilities propose to grant themselves even more control over regional transmission development and elevate themselves over PJM in key regional decisions.

Here is the contract they are presenting to PJM for its acquiescence --
pjm.com/-/media/commit… PJM is a regional transmission operator premised on a contract between transmission-owning utilities and PJM itself. The contract grants PJM certain rights to operate the transmission system and splits control over regional market and transmission rules/plans bt the parties.
Jan 24 • 33 tweets • 8 min read
How is utility control over transmission blocking clean energy and raising costs?

Here’s a look at allegations by renewables or transmission developers that utilities or RTOs are acting anti-competitively.

The complaints are about interconnection, planning, rates, and more! In some cases, facts are not seriously in dispute. The issue is whether the utility or RTO is violating rules. Ultimately, this is a legal call, and FERC’s answer will not necessarily find that the utility/RTO is not acting anti-competitively.

Alright, let's go!
Oct 5, 2023 • 25 tweets • 5 min read
Why isn’t the power industry building more transmission? Adopting advanced transmission technologies? Connecting new projects faster?
In Replacing the Utility Transmission Syndicate’s Control, I diagnose the fundamental issue: regional governance.
🧵papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cf… Power sector rules determine who can generate and transmit energy and influence the mix of resources on the grid. Having authority to change the rules is hugely consequential. My paper is about decisionmaking structures + processes used to change industry rules (aka governance).
Aug 7, 2023 • 10 tweets • 3 min read
Republicans are planning to attack three decades of FERC’s efforts to replace monopoly power with competition.

It is a regressive plan steeped in techno-pessimism. The plan includes legal challenges and an overhaul of FERC policies if Rs win the White House.
First, the lawsuits: Rs will invoke the Major Questions Doctrine (MQD), but that will only get them so far.

This will happen soon. 17 states argue that FERC is trying to “revamp” the power sector, violating MQD:

(My rebuttal with @PolicyIntegrity - https://t.co/s1PNMySf8X)elibrary.ferc.gov/eLibrary/filel…
elibrary.ferc.gov/eLibrary/filel…
Jun 26, 2023 • 8 tweets • 2 min read
This piece starts by equating a national standard for interregional transmission with the Trump Admin's failed proposal to to bail out coal and nuke plants.

It then argues that FERC and Congress should have essentially no role in transmission planning. The Trump bailout was premised on out-of-date assumptions about system operations and was intended to lock-in an aging resource mix.

By contrast, interregional transmission is about optionality. New transmission will provide value, regardless of the resource mix.
Jun 9, 2023 • 14 tweets • 3 min read
Time to set the record straight.
Not every utility is reflexively opposed to interregional transmission.

But if utilities want more large-scale transmission, they could make it happen. So why aren’t we seeing more development of big transmission projects? Image First, until *very* recently, nearly all utilities owned generation. 1990s state restructuring laws prevented utilities from recovering power plant development costs through state-set consumer rates.

But most states didn’t pass those laws.
Apr 20, 2023 • 5 tweets • 2 min read
So close.
Under the DOE Organization Act of 1977, a FERC Open Meeting must commence once 1,000 people are waiting on Youtube. Image Boom! We did it.
The FERC Secretary is now violating the DOE Organization Act. The Marshall of the Supreme Court is authorized to take action. I take no pleasure in reporting this. Image
Mar 30, 2023 • 4 tweets • 2 min read
I've spent too much time reading what EEI representatives have told Congress over the years in public hearings. I'm still excited about a gem I found from Mr. Kuhn, testifying in 1991 against competition in power generation. Here it is again: In 2021, EEI and its members asked FERC to end transmission competition. Their main argument was/is that competition impedes "collaboration," "coordination," and "cooperation" among utilities that was/is necessary for large-scale transmission development.
Mar 15, 2023 • 5 tweets • 1 min read
At 9:30 this morning, the DC Circuit will hear oral argument about FERC's quasi-approval of the Southeast Energy Exchange (aka SEEM).

This might be the most significant case in 20 years about FERC's efforts to rein in utility market power. Clean energy advocates claim that SEEM is a thinly veiled attempt by the region's largest utilities (SoCo, Duke, Dominion) to control the interstate wholesale power market for their benefit and to the detriment of non-utility power plant developers.
Feb 14, 2023 • 8 tweets • 3 min read
As usual, @kdgscribe is on top of the latest federal appeals court energy decision. Here's the DC Circuit's opinion - cadc.uscourts.gov/internet/opini… Textbook case of how personnel (Presidential appointees) matter.

Issue is whether a 160 MW DC solar array whose output is limited to 80 MW by an inverter is a Qualifying Facility (QF) under PURPA, which limits QFs to facilities w "power production capacity" less than 80 MW.
Jan 17, 2023 • 4 tweets • 1 min read
Unanimous FERC approves Public Service Co of Colorado's use of the social cost of carbon in power plant dispatch -elibrary.ferc.gov/eLibrary/filed… This is a very limited decision.

A settlement approved by the CO PUC requires PSCo to use the social cost of carbon in dispatch until it joins an organized market. PSCo is scheduled to join SPP's real-time market (WEIS) on April 1. So the use of the SCC will then end.
Dec 23, 2022 • 5 tweets • 2 min read
Two FERC orders today go against Entergy. Both address long-standing issues regarding Grand Gulf Nuclear. Both are about complex accounting/financial matters. The first is about taxes. The second is about a complaint filed by LA PSC over billing of lease renewals. Danly dissents. Cost-of-service ratemaking: "We direct SERI to refile its FERC Form No. 1s beginning December 31, 2018 to reverse the transfer of excess ADIT or 2017 FIN 48 ADIT recorded in Account 236, and to further reclassify this amount from Account 283 to Account 282."
Dec 22, 2022 • 11 tweets • 2 min read
Transmission cost allocation!
It’s one of the many under-discussed aspects of transmission development (permitting gets most of the headlines).

A FERC order from last week may highlight lessons for future cost allocators: 1. Modify existing methods rather than develop entirely new methods:

FERC: “Courts have also clarified that the proponent of a change in rates, terms, and conditions need not prove the continued reasonableness of unchanged rates or unchanged attributes of its rate structure.”
Dec 21, 2022 • 4 tweets • 2 min read
New(ish) complaint filed at FERC by RENEW NE argues that New England rule requiring new generators to pay long-term O&M costs of grid upgrades is unjust and unreasonable. Claims New England is only region that imposes such fees.

Docket EL23-16: elibrary.ferc.gov/eLibrary/filed… Complaint: "there is a lack of transparency not only in the O&M cost calculation for direct assignment to Interconnection Customers, but also for how NE PTOs ensure that such costs are not also included in transmission rates (i.e., double counted)."
Dec 7, 2022 • 10 tweets • 3 min read
Nevertheless, Manchin released a new version of his permitting bill -- energy.senate.gov/services/files…

Here's what's changed on transmission -- For FPA wonks, the new bill wouldn't touch section 202. The earlier bill modified 202 to reflect FERC authority to permit transmission. It wasn't clear to me that those amendments were necessary.