The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) has issued a companion order to its open-access Notice of Proposed Rulemaking (Docket No. ER93-540-003). The new order offers guidelines for presiding judges and participants in pending open-access cases that concern public utilities' offers of nondiscriminatory services. It also addresses how the FERC will proceed with other public utility filings that propose to provide open-access services under general tariffs filed prior to a final rule.
Any open-access tariff on file at the time a final rule is issued will be subject to the substantive requirements of the final rule. But the proposed "Stage One" procedures are not intended to apply to public utilities with open-access tariffs on file. (Under Stage One, the FERC would put generic tariffs into effect for any utility owning/controlling interstate facilities and providing network transmission services, firm and nonfirm point-to-point transmission services, and ancillary services needed to effect network and point-to-point service.)
The FERC addressed four categories of open-access tariff cases: