Regulatory Affairs news highlights: August 2024

 

Recent regulatory headlines we’re tracking include:

FERC releases new dashboard with updates on winterization efforts

Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) Chair Willie Phillips announced the release of a new dashboard on the FERC website that tracks and provides updates on the status of recommendations from past FERC and NERC inquiries/analyses of Winter Storm Uri and Winter Storm Elliott. The updates include various types of actions taken in response to the recommendations, such as technical conferences, new generator cold weather preparedness standards, outreach and training workshops and webinars, NERC alerts, Regional Entity generator site surveys and visits, the NAESB Gas-Electric Forum, and various studies.

 

FERC to host Innovations and Efficiencies in Generator Interconnection Workshop

On Sept. 10-11 (from 9 a.m. – 5 p.m. EDT each day), FERC is holding a workshop at its Washington, D.C., headquarters on opportunities for further innovation and increased efficiency in the generator interconnection process. The workshop will also have a public webcast, available on the FERC website. On day one, there will be “Innovations Panels” that will discuss potential enhancements to generator interconnection processes to build on the reforms in FERC’s Order 2023. Day two will feature “Efficiencies Panels” that will discuss potential changes to generator interconnection processes, such as automating certain process steps and enhancing the design, construction, and operation of interconnection facilities and network upgrades.

 

FERC commissioners testify at House energy subcommittee

On July 24, the House Subcommittee on Energy, Climate, & Grid Security held a hearing on FERC’s 2025 Fiscal Year budget request. All five FERC commissioners (including the three newly installed commissioners) attended the hearing, which included discussions on the new Order 1920. The full recording of the hearing is available here. The written testimonies of each of the commissioners is also available: Chair Willie Phillips, Commissioner Mark Christie, Commissioner David Rosner, Commissioner Lindsay See, and Commissioner Judy Chang.

Chair Phillips’ testimony includes a summary of FERC’s major orders and activities over the past year, and Commissioner Christie’s testimony expresses concerns about the reliability implications of the changing resource mix and his thoughts on how to address the issue. Commissioner Rosner discusses how reliability is job one for FERC, and stresses the importance of resource and fuel neutrality. Commissioner See’s testimony discusses her respect for the balance in the energy sector between federal and state authority, and states that there is now a “smaller margin of error for agency orders after the Supreme Court’s recent decisions cabining agency discretion.” Commissioner Chang notes the importance of reliability and resilience given the rapidly growing electricity usage from manufacturing facilities and data centers and electrification of transportation and heating.

 

DOE project provides $371 million for transmission siting and economic development

In late July, the Department of Energy (DOE) announced that it will commit $371 million to 20 projects in 16 states to assist in the construction of a reliable and modern electrical grid while also creating new jobs. The funding is part of the Biden administration’s Transmission Siting and Economic Development Program, which was created as part of the Inflation Reduction Act (IRA). Four states (including Illinois, Wisconsin, and Pennsylvania in the RF footprint), will receive grants to help accelerate the siting and permitting process for high-voltage transmission lines. In 12 states, funding will go to communities to spur economic development and ensure smaller communities share in the benefits of new transmission deployment.