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October 5, 2007
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| NEM Fall Industry Leadership Roundtable | |
| NEM's Fall Industry Leadership Roundtable will be held November 15-26, 2007, in Green Bay, Wisconsin at the offices of NEM Executive Committee member Integrys Energy Services. This meeting is open to all NEM members and prospective members as well.
NEM negotiated discounted room rates at the Ramada Plaza Green Bay at the rate of $84/night. You must call the Ramada at 920-499-0631 and request the NEM rate (it is not available on the internet). Please register for the meeting using this hotlink.
Many thanks to Integrys Energy Services for hosting the meeting. | |
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| Conference on FERC Enforcement Authority | |
| FERC will convene a conference on the implementation of its enforcement authority under EPAct. The conference will be held November 16, 2007, at 9AM at the Commission's D.C. headquarters. The conference will arranged into three panels. The first panel will assess the first two years of the enforcement program since the passage of EPAct. The second panel will review how enforcement fits into the Commission's mission. The third panel will look at enforcement of reliability standards. The full text of the Notice of Conference is available on the NEM Website. | |
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| Retail Power Marketers Appeal NERC Determination | |
| Three retail power marketers appealed to FERC a determination made by NERC that they were properly registered as load serving entities (LSEs) by ReliabilityFirst Corporation (a Regional Entity). The marketers agreed to their registration as purchasing-selling entities, but not to their registration as LSEs. The registry criteria for entities to be deemed LSEs is peak load greater than 25MW and to be directly connected to the Bulk Power System. The marketers note they do not own or operate any physical assets and therefore do not satisfy the criteria. Additionally, other Regional Entities besides ReliabilityFirst have affirmatively declined to register the marketers as LSEs.
FERC decided to convene a technical conference to explore the issues because of its belief that, "the retail power marketers raise legitimate questions regarding consistency and fairness in the application of the registration criteria and the adequacy of support for NERC's determination." Issues to be examined in the technical conference include: 1) the potential reliability gap that could result from a retail power marketer not being registered as an LSE; 2) the justification for the disparity in ReliabilityFirst's classification of retail power marketers as LSEs while other Regional Entities register them only as purchasing-selling entities; 3) applicable Reliability Standard requirements for retail power marketers registered as LSEs; 4) support for the conclusions that the retail power marketers are "directly connected" to the Bulk-Power System and that retail power marketers within ReliabilityFirst, in the aggregate, impact Bulk-Power System reliability; and 5) alternative means of addressing any reliability gaps. The technical conference is to be convened within 45 days of the Commission's Order. The full text of the Order is available on the NEM Website. | |
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| AEP Complaint Against PJM and MISO | |
| AEP filed a complaint against PJM and MISO challenging the justness and reasonableness of their open access transmission tariffs. AEP argued that, "the transmission rate designs and cost allocation methods used in PJM and MISO are unjust, unreasonable, unduly discriminatory, and unduly preferential because they do not fairly allocate the costs of owning, operating, and maintaining AEP's (and others') EHV [extra high voltage] transmission systems among the beneficiaries of those systems." AEP urges the Commission to adopt a regional transmission rate design and cost allocation method for PJM and MISO that regionalizes costs of existing and new transmission facilities operated at higher voltages. The full text of AEP's Complaint is available from NEM headquarters. | |
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Maryland
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| Electric Utilities Ordered to File Energy Efficiency, Conservation and Demand Reduction Plans | |
| The Commission ordered the electric utilities to file energy efficiency, conservation and demand reduction plans that would enable them to achieve usage reduction goals consistent with the EmPower Maryland plan announced by Governor O'Malley of a statewide fifteen percent reduction in total electric usage on a per capita basis by 2015. The utilities' plans should address costs, benefits and other issues related to mandatory customer participation (i.e., through time of use or critical peak pricing).
The Commission determined that a statewide standard of minimum technical standards and operational capacity of advanced meters was necessary. Utility proposals to implement an AMI system should meet minimum requirements such as implementation for all customers, non-discriminatory access, and functionality such as a minimum of hourly meter reads delivered one time per day, remote programming capability, two-way communication capability, remote connect and disconnect, time stamp capability, fourteen days data storage capability, and voltage monitoring. Metering and data management would generally continue as an electric company function. However, metering and data management options may be considered for larger non-residential customers.
Utility cost recovery of demand side management programs should be accomplished through a distribution rate surcharge that will be established through an annual utility filing.
The procedural schedule for review of the utility filings is as follows:
Interventions Due - October 12, 2007
Investor-Owned Utilities Plans Due - October 26, 2007
Comments on Investor-Owned Utilities Plans Due - November 2, 2007
Hearings - November 8-9, 2007
All Other Electric Companies Plans Due - January 11, 2008.
The full text of the Order is available on the NEM Website. | |
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New York
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| Utility Capacity Release Program Compliance Filings | |
| The Commission previously ordered that the natural gas utilities implement mandatory capacity assignment programs. Current levels of marketer-owned capacity are to be grandfathered. The mandatory assignment policy is applicable to "those residential and small commercial customers who lack access to alternative fuels and for whom marketers must acquire primary delivery point capacity for the five winter months if they do not accept assignment of LDC capacity." The Commission required that firm utility primary delivery point capacity, utilized by a marketer, must be held by a marketer for twelve months instead of the prior policy which only imposed a winter month requirement.
The utilities have submitted compliance filings to implement the mandatory capacity programs. The filings are to to take effect on November 1, 2007, on a temporary basis, subject to final Commission approval. As part of its filing, Keyspan also proposed to change the prepayment terms for ESCOs that do not meet UBP creditworthiness guidelines (that are required to prepay for winter bundled sales service or virtual storage service). Keyspan wants to change the time requirement for prepayment from two days to three days prior to the start of the month. The full text of Utilities' Compliance Filings is available on the NEM Website. | |
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| ALJ Recommended Decision in NFG Rate Case | |
| The ALJ issued a Recommended Decision in NFG's rate case. With respect to NFG's retail access programs, the ALJ noted that there is a generic proceeding that was opened to examine next steps in retail market formation. The ALJ noted that the Commission could potentially render a decision in the generic case that could impact the Commission's final decision in the NFG rate case. That having been said, the ALJ recommended that the POR program should continue for now and that NFG should provide one year's notice of its intent to discontinue it. The ALJ recommended that the Commission refrain from reinstating the marketer referral program. Instead, a collaborative should be convened in 2008 to examine a mass market migration pilot program and modifications to service inception arrangements. The conduct of consumer education, Market Match and Market Expo programs should be implemented in conformance with a Commission decision in the generic retail markets case.
The ALJ recommended that storage gas carrying costs, customer record and collection costs should be included in the Merchant Function Charge. The ALJ found that the billing and payment processing charge should be rolled into the monthly customer charge, and NFG should not be required to separately state the charge on bills rendered for marketers.
In response to NFG's proposal to eliminate the "no harm, no foul" rule with respect to daily balancing requirements, the ALJ suggests that daily balancing requirements should be applied separately to large marketers and smaller marketers, with each group having the benefit of its own "no harm, no foul" rule. NFG will implement a revenue decoupling mechanism to complement energy efficiency activities.
Briefs on exceptions are due October 18, 2007, and briefs opposing exceptions are due November 2, 2007. The full text of the Recommended Decision is available on the NEM Website. | |
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| NYSEG Electric Compliance Filing | |
| In conformance with the Commission's recent order on its electric rate plan, NYSEG submitted a filing setting forth the tariff revisions for its commodity enrollment program to become effective on November 1, 2007. NYSEG's commodity enrollment program was modified to eliminate the ESCO Option with Supply Adjustment (EOSA); implement a fixed Transition Charge for all customer; accelerate the phase-in of customers served under mandatory Hourly Pricing; change the conversion factor used to calculate the fixed price; and modify the earnings sharing mechanism. Additionally, customers served under the EOSA option that do not select a Supply Service Option during the Enrollment Period will be served under the ESCO Price Option. The full text of NYSEG's Compliance Filing is available on the NEM Website. | |
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