By Suzanne Herel
One party to the Exelon-Pepco Holdings Inc. merger case has asked the D.C. Public Service Commission to reconsider its approval, and the People’s Counsel said she’s considering doing the same.
Grid 2.0, which advocates for distributed generation, and did not sign on to any proposed settlement in the case, said in a March 25 filing that the commission failed to give adequate notice of public hearings and did not provide support for its finding that the settlement it crafted itself was in the public interest.
“The commission … failed to make any independent finding that the revised settlement agreement is in the public interest,” it said, calling the PSC’s conclusion “arbitrary and capricious.”
The nine settling parties, who approved an initial agreement that was later amended by the commission, have until April 22 to file an application for reconsideration with the PSC. Four other groups that intervened but did not sign on to the settlement also have the opportunity to appeal the decision.
The joint applicants responded to the filing, saying “every part of Grid 2.0’s argument is wrong.”
“The commission approved the merger after two years of the most exhaustive consideration that the commission has ever given to any issue, and it did so based on one of the most extensive records the commission has ever compiled,” they said.
D.C. People’s Counsel Sandra Mattavous-Frye said last week on the Kojo Nnamdi radio show that she is reviewing the ruling with an eye toward issues that might warrant her office taking action.
“I do have some major concerns about the process throughout the case. You didn’t really know what to expect or how the commission came to its determination,” she said. “It’s not over until it’s over. But I do admit that the lift is going to be heavier at this junction.”
Exelon and Pepco closed the $6.8 billion transaction just hours after the PSC approved the deal on March 23. (See Exelon Closes Pepco Merger Following OK from PSC.)
Mattavous-Frye cited “uncertainty created by the commission’s plan,” specifically how it plans to use $32.8 million of the $72.8 million customer investment fund that commissioners “redirected … for themselves without any clear explanation of how those funds will be used.”
If the commission stands by its decision, parties may turn to the D.C. Court of Appeals.
The acquisition, approved on a 2-1 vote with Chairwoman Betty Ann Kane in opposition, creates the country’s largest utility by customer count.
In an interview last week with the Washington Business Journal, Exelon CEO Chris Crane and new Pepco head David Velazquez said they would work to prove themselves to merger opponents and will be active in district affairs.
“Electricity system recovery and restoration would be delayed or may not begin until the nature of the cyber risks are understood and mitigation strategies are available,” said 
In an eight-page, single-spaced 
According to the report, which covered December 2015 through February 2016, wind generation accounted for 17.7% of SPP’s energy, a 43% increase from last winter. Wind generation accounted for 12.4% of energy production last winter and 10.2% during the winter of 2014.
SunEdison, saddled with nearly $10 billion in long-term debt, is at risk of filing for bankruptcy protection, one of its affiliates said.
The two largest coal mines in the U.S., both in Wyoming, announced massive layoffs last week. Peabody Energy cut 235 people, or 15% of the workforce, March 31 at North Antelope Rochelle. Arch Coal said the same day it was cutting 15%, or 230 people, at its Black Thunder Mine.
PacifiCorp has abandoned plans to convert a coal unit at its Naughton Plant in southwestern Wyoming to natural gas, saying it will now retire the unit at the end of 2017. The company said the move is a result of declining electricity demand and reflects the costs of installing environmental upgrades to meet federal haze requirements.
Aerojet Rocketdyne, Arkansas Electric Cooperative Corp. and Ouachita Electric Cooperative Corp. formally commissioned a 100-acre solar project in southern Arkansas last week. The 12-MW array located in an industrial park will supply power to Aerojet’s nearby facility.
DTE Energy is proposing the development of a 10-acre solar array on a former playground in Detroit, which the utility said “could be one of the largest urban solar arrays in the U.S.”
Consumers Energy has reported that its natural gas commodity price has fallen to its lowest level in 18 years.
The Tennessee Valley Authority, together with the Tennessee Valley Public Power Association, has awarded 16.7 MW of solar capacity to four local power companies for projects expected to generate enough electricity to supply more than 1,300 homes.
Duke Energy is seeking permission to modernize its Markland Hydro Station on the Ohio River near Florence, Ind. The company wants to replace three hydroelectric turbines, generators and related equipment.
SandRidge Energy, an Oklahoma City oil and gas exploration company, has informed the Securities and Exchange Commission that it has talked with advisers about the possibility of filing for bankruptcy. Plunging natural gas prices and depressed energy demand have left a number of energy companies with onerous debt burdens.
The companies said that they believe that the CPP “reflects reasonable and attainable assumptions about the increasing availability of renewable generation in the nation’s power sector.”
More than a quarter of the bolts securing plates directing water around uranium fuel rods at Entergy’s Indian Point 2 nuclear reactor were found to be either broken, deformed or missing, according to a report released on March 29.
FERC has delayed the timetable to review two proposed Marcellus Shale natural gas pipelines, pushing the potential approval dates into early 2017.
The American Bird Conservancy says that three proposed wind projects near migration routes or important avian rookeries should not be built because they represent threats to endangered birds.
EPA and 41 energy companies announced a partnership to voluntarily reduce methane emissions from natural gas operations at the Global Methane Forum in D.C. last week.
NASA and the National Snow and Ice Data Center say the maximum ice buildup in the Arctic is coming in low this year. Ice growth for February was 1.16 million kilometers below average. And March’s reading, at 14.52 million square kilometers, was the lowest maximum extent on record.
The Department of Energy is considering shipping nearly 7 tons of weapons-grade plutonium from the department’s Savannah River Site in South Carolina to the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant in Las Cruces, N.M.