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Federal Energy Regulatory Commission

FERC’s Market-Power Test: First, Do No Harm

Why a new market-power screen—accounting for the relationship between customers and suppliers in the wholesale marketplace—is a necessity.

The philosophy of "first, do no harm" has served the medical profession well for more than 2,000 years. Today, it may be equally good advice for FERC as it seeks to create fair and accurate screens to determine who does and does not have market power. One of the two interim screens FERC is using to evaluate applications for market-based rate authority may create a large number of false positives—power suppliers judged to have market power when in reality they do not. To remedy this, FERC should add a new market-power screen based upon an analysis of the actual relationship between customers and suppliers in the wholesale marketplace.
Byline: 

Louis R. Jahn

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Commission Watch

What everybody missed in setting up the regional grids.

Commission Watch

What everybody missed in setting up the regional grids.

While the electric utility industry has largely agreed on what elements to include in a standard market design (SMD) to govern wholesale power trading in a given region, recent experience shows that the regulators from time to time have overlooked a number of things.

Byline: 
Bruce W. Radford
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The Global LNG Gamble

The Geopolitical Risks of LNG

The Geopolitical Risks of LNG

To many energy-industry analysts, 2005 is a make-or-break year for the U.S. gas market. If we don't have at least several liquefied natural gas (LNG) terminals in construction by the end of the year, the country arguably will face serious gas-supply shortages and price spikes beginning in about 2008.1

Byline: 
Michael T. Burr
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Alaskan Gas Development: One Pipeline, Two Systems

FERC may have to carve out a special set of rules if it wants to bring Arctic gas south to the lower-48.

When President Bush signed the Alaska Natural Gas Pipeline Act of 2004, one might have thought that North Slope gas was on the fast track. With all the special provisions that Congress has added to the bill, the reality may prove otherwise.
Byline: 

Bruce W. Radford

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Navigating the Gray Areas

Successful energy market development means understanding new subtleties and nuances.

A recent McKinsey article proclaimed, “More progress has been made improving the governance of U.S. corporations during the past couple of years than in the several decades preceding them." Yet, revelations from the disgraceful behavior associated with Enron and related events continue to surface and confuse the issue of what is needed today to move energy markets forward.
Byline: 

William F. Hederman

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A Better Merchant Mousetrap?

The failure of the Empire Connection spells trouble for private transmission projects.

It’s at the very heart of all policy initiatives for both electric generation and transmission: How do you attract the right amount of investment without creating an overbuilt market, or a boom-bust scenario? In recent months, utility executives, financiers, and policy-makers have been asking this question with even greater zeal than usual.
Byline: 

Richard Stavros

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PJM/Midwest Market: Two Rival Groups Battle Over Grid Pricing

Should transmission owners get paid extra for distance and voltage?

While the Midwest now appears set on competitive bidding for the electricity commodity, taking from PJM such tried-and-true elements as locational marginal pricing, financial transmission rights, and a day-ahead market with a security-constrained dispatch, the region remains split over the pricing of transmission.
Byline: 

Bruce Radford

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Barriers to Entry: The Fight Against Power- Line Communications

And for a reasonable regulatory policy for new broadband technology.

To achieve the benefits of broadband over power line communications platforms, policy-makers must resolve a number of issues, including: (1) harmful radio interference; (2) access; and (3) cross-subsidies. If their policies impose diseconomies on the operation, design, or financial structure of BPL, widespread deployment of the technology is unlikely.
Byline: 

Charles A. Zielinski

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Commission Watch

FERC Versus Bankruptcy Jurisdiction:

Commission Watch

FERC Versus Bankruptcy Jurisdiction:

Two recent articles in the 1 discussed conflicts that have emerged in the last 18 months over the respective jurisdictions of bankruptcy courts under the Bankruptcy Code2 and the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) under the Federal Power Act.3 This occurs when a debtor seeks the bankruptcy court's approval under Section 365(a) of the code4 to reject a wholesale electricity sales contract that is a FERC-jurisdictional rate.

Byline: 
John P. Ratnaswamy
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Perspective

How the filed-rate policy wreaks havoc- and what courts can do about it.

Perspective

How the filed-rate policy wreaks havoc- and what courts can do about it.

Like many venerable legal rules, the filed-rate doctrine is rarely questioned. Over the last century, it has served many important purposes. However, with deregulated wholesale electric power markets at the federal level and various degrees of deregulation across the states, both the doctrine's continued applicability and usefulness are suspect.

Byline: 
Jim Rossi
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