By Robert Mullin

FERC on Wednesday rejected an argument by the California Public Utilities Commission that it erred last year in allowing Pacific Gas and Electric to include a 50-basis-point ISO participation adder in the utility’s 2017 transmission rates proposal.

The PUC filed its protest last November after FERC conditionally accepted PG&E’s proposed rate increase while at the same time denying the PUC’s request to throw out the adder, calling it a $30 million “unjustified windfall” at the expense of California ratepayers. (See CPUC Contest ISO Incentive for PG&E.) The Sacramento Municipal Utility District joined the protest.

The PUC at the time contended that the ruling ignored “the need to demonstrate that an incentive must be ‘justified’ pursuant to [FERC] Order 679,” which allows transmission owners to collect the adder as motivation to join an RTO or ISO. Because the PUC requires California’s investor-owned utilities to be members of CAISO, PG&E did not warrant incentive treatment, the PUC said.

The commission’s Sept. 20 order rebuffed that argument, saying that the PUC had raised the same argument more than 10 years ago in its rehearing request of Order 679, which was rejected in a follow-up order (ER16-2320).

“If the CPUC disagreed with the commission’s determination in Order No. 679-A, the appropriate course of action was to seek judicial review of Order Nos. 679 and 679-A under Section 313 of the” Federal Power Act, FERC said. “The commission has also already held that arguments opposing the granting of an incentive adder for RTO membership to existing RTO members constitute a collateral attack on Order No. 679-A, and we find that the CPUC’s assertion here is in the same vein and warrants the same response.”

The commission also rejected the PUC’s contention that FERC erred by granting the 50-basis-point adder without weighing the specific facts of the case and considering whether a different incentive might be more appropriate. The PUC noted that FERC’s September 2016 order had subjected PG&E’s final return on equity to a hearing by a settlement judge. (See FERC Sets PG&E Rate Increase Proposal for Talks.)

FERC said it approved the adder subject to it being it being applied to a base ROE that left the full ROE within the “zone of reasonableness” determined by the settlement judge.

“Thus, the commission’s duty to ensure just and reasonable rates for consumers will be fulfilled via the trial-type evidentiary hearing process we have ordered, which will result in an ROE, including the proposed adder, that must fall within the zone of reasonableness, and that trial-type evidentiary hearing process is one in which the CPUC may participate,” FERC said.

FERC also said it was “not persuaded” by the PUC’s contention that PG&E’s continued membership in CAISO is not voluntary. It noted that FERC Order 2000 spelled out that voluntary membership was the “most appropriate” approach for creating and expanding RTOs and ISOs.

“This longstanding commission policy of voluntary RTO/ISO formation and membership remains unchanged,” FERC said. “This longstanding commission policy is also reflected in CAISO’s currently effective Transmission Control Agreement, which is on file with the commission.”