Managing Director and General Counsel @aeenet; former @FERC - Mostly energy law and policy tweets. Views are my own, retweets are not endorsements!
Sep 21, 2022 • 4 tweets • 2 min read
Friendly reminder: Congress was explicit when it enacted Part II of the Federal Power Act that it intended for there to be federal regulation of the interstate transmission grid. The whole point was to fill the gap left by state regulation. 1/ utilitydive.com/news/republica…
"National-scale energy grid regulation is a 'major question' because of the massive economic consequences involved in such regulation," the AGs say. OK, sure. 📣 CONGRESS ADDRESSED THAT QUESTION IN THE FPA 📣 by creating a scheme to, um, regulate the grid on a national scale. 2/
Sep 19, 2022 • 4 tweets • 1 min read
Lots I disagree with in this piece about RGGI from our Acting Sec. of Natural and Historic Resources, but this admission caught my eye:
"Virginia’s regulated rate structure provides no incentive for utilities to reduce emissions or compliance costs." 1/
washingtonpost.com/opinions/2022/…
As a Virginia resident and ratepayer, I guess my question is - what's the Administration's plan to fix that? 2/2
May 28, 2022 • 5 tweets • 2 min read
@FERC approves ISO-NE proposal to remove MOPR in two years, with a new exemption for a small amount of state-sponsored resources during the next two years MOPR stays in place. All five Commissioners wrote separately, which is incredibly unusual. 1/
The order, which was joined by 4 Commissioners, makes a strong statement (with detailed reasoning) that MOPRing state sponsored resources is not just and reasonable. It also explicitly rejects the idea that MOPR is a reliability tool. Those are both big positives. 2/
Apr 21, 2022 • 23 tweets • 16 min read
As expected, @FERC is indeed issuing a Notice of Proposed Rulemaking (NOPR) today on Transmission Planning and Cost Allocation. If I counted right, the vote will be 4-1. Presentation with more details coming soon . . . will try to share some here if I can type fast enough. 1/
@FERC The NOPR is focused on planning and cost allocation, but DOES NOT appear to address generator interconnection. 2/
Dec 23, 2021 • 11 tweets • 4 min read
If all you wanted for Christmas was a FERC order on complex interrelated issues in the energy, reserves, and capacity markets in PJM, well, Merry Christmas to you! Brief 🧵 1/ elibrary.ferc.gov/eLibrary/filel…
What is this acronym soup all about? In short, the Operating Reserve Demand Curve (ORDC) ensures that prices for reserves rise in PJM when system conditions start to get stressed, so that the price of energy and reserves reflect the shortage, just like a "real market". 2/
Sep 23, 2021 • 44 tweets • 9 min read
@FERC and @NERC_Official staff are now providing a report out on their preliminary findings and recommendations stemming from their joint investigation of the February 2021 outages in ERCOT. ferc.capitolconnection.org/#@FERC@NERC_Official@douglewinenergy asked me to live tweet, and I'm going to try, but I am REALLY bad at it so hold your expectations.
Jul 8, 2021 • 8 tweets • 2 min read
The PJM Board of Managers announced yesterday that it has directed PJM staff to file a proposal to roll back the expanded Minimum Offer Price Rule (MOPR) that was put in place in response to a December 2019 FERC directive. 1/ pjm.com/-/media/about-…
The PJM proposal that will be filed with FERC removes both the pre-existing MOPR that applied to gas units and the expanded MOPR that applied to resources receiving a state subsidy, and replaces them with a much narrower MOPR. A summary is linked here: 2/ pjm.com/-/media/commit…
Feb 23, 2021 • 8 tweets • 2 min read
The six independent members of the ERCOT Board of Directors have announced that they will resign after tomorrow's emergency Board meeting.
I admire their willingness to accept responsibility - the mark of true leaders. But scapegoating ERCOT's Board here is absurd. 1/
ERCOT's leaders have spent many years implementing a unified vision in Texas for electricity competition. In my experience, that unified vision among politicians, regulators, grid operators, etc., is incredible rare. No other RTO (even the other single state RTOs) has that. 2/
Feb 21, 2021 • 6 tweets • 2 min read
This Q led me to revisit Tres Amigas's 2010 request for a declaratory order from FERC that it's project (which would have connected ERCOT to the Eastern and Western Interconnections) would not threaten ERCOT's jurisdictional status. The order is here: 1/ elibrary.ferc.gov/eLibrary/filed…
The order does a nice job explaining why ERCOT is not jurisdictional today. Energy transmitted on the ERCOT grid is not considered to be "commingled" on the interstate grid and is generally not transmitted or consumed outside Texas. 2/
Feb 18, 2021 • 6 tweets • 2 min read
There have been a number of questions about whether there are any kind of standards or requirements for generator winterization at either the state or federal level. From what I can tell, the answer is a firm "not really". Again, FERC/NERC's 2011 report is instructive. 1/
I don't have the bandwidth/resources to run this all the way to ground, but I did dig up this letter that FERC sent to NERC in June 2012. It explains that the 2011 report found a gap in federal, state, and regional standards w/ respect to winterization. 2/ nerc.com/FilingsOrders/…
Oct 14, 2020 • 9 tweets • 3 min read
[Take two!] Four events this week may send us once more into the fray of FERC, state policies, and RTO/ISO wholesale markets. A thread on them, starting with a significant announcement from 5 of the New England Governors . . . 1/1. Today, @NESCOEStates released the "Governors Statement on Electricity Reform 2020", calling for the regional ISO to become "a committed partner in [their] decarbonization efforts." 2/ nescoe.com/resource-cente…
Oct 31, 2019 • 9 tweets • 8 min read
Thanks again to @EnergyCommerce and @HouseCommerce for inviting us to testify yesterday! You can find all the testimony and a link to the webcast recording here. A couple of takeaways in this brief thread. 1/? energycommerce.house.gov/committee-acti…@EnergyCommerce@HouseCommerce First, I want to reiterate our overarching message - with wind, solar, energy storage, DER, EE, and all other advanced energy technologies now the least-cost resources, transitioning to a 100% clean power sector is an economic opportunity for America, not an economic burden. 2/?
Sep 19, 2019 • 7 tweets • 2 min read
Quick take on the PURPA proposal as I understand it so far: the proposal to drop the rebuttable presumption threshold under 210(m) from 20 MW to 1 MW, and the proposal to potentially extend 210(m) relief outside the RTOs, could both significantly harm competition. 1/?
One beef I have is that FERC seems to be progressing from the notion that PURPA was all about addressing dependence on oil and the 1970s oil shortages/embargo. But as I've noted here before, that's only one of the goals PURPA sought to achieve. 2/?
Apr 1, 2019 • 6 tweets • 2 min read
Here's a good thread on yesterday's NYT article about the La Paloma generating plant in CA, and the complaint they filed that FERC swiftly and unanimously rejected. In addition to @MilesFarmer's excellent analysis, here is my own quick thread. 1/?
The comparison to FERC's order proposing to impose minimum offer prices on renewables and some nuclear in PJM is tenuous at best, because that order's rationale (which I strongly disagree with) is based on PJM's centralized capacity market design. 2/?
