FERC last week proposed reducing the amount of ownership information that companies must provide to obtain market-based rate authority.

The commission allows companies to sell power at market-based rates if they and their affiliates lack, or have adequately mitigated, horizontal and vertical market power. Current rules require applicants to describe the activities of all upstream owners, often requiring sellers to submit multiple amendments to their filings.

The commission’s Notice of Proposed Rulemaking would require applicants to provide ownership information only for affiliates necessary for the commission’s market power analysis (RM16-3).

Sellers would be required to identify and describe two categories of affiliates:

• “Ultimate affiliate owner(s),” defined as the furthest upstream affiliate owner(s) in the ownership chain; and
• Affiliate owners with franchised service areas or market-based rate authority, or that directly own or control generation; transmission; intrastate natural gas transportation, storage or distribution facilities; physical coal supply sources; or access to transportation of coal supplies.

The NOPR also would clarify the types of ownership changes that must be reported to the commission.

The commission said the changes would be less burdensome for filers and more useful to FERC’s assessments.

Comments will be due 60 days from publication in the Federal Register.

— Rich Heidorn Jr.