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November 20, 2024

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State Briefs

DELAWARE
Lawmaker Proposes Study for Power Aggregation

Colin Bonini
Colin Bonini

A Delaware lawmaker included a proposal for an electricity aggregation study into the state’s capital budget this year in a move that could lead to lower electricity prices for local governments and their residents. The measure, penned by state Sen. Colin Bonini (R-Dover South), calls for the assessment of local conditions and a study of best practices in other states. Aggregation programs allow for large groups to buy power in blocks, with the idea that the group could negotiate a better deal than the standard offer from utilities. Delmarva Power & Light officials said they were studying the proposal.

More: The News Journal

ILLINOIS

Wisconsin Energy Promises Rate Freeze in Acquisition

we-energiesSourceWEWisconsin Energy is promising to freeze rates and guarantee jobs for at least two years in an attempt to convince the Illinois Commerce Commission to OK its proposed acquisition of Integrys Energy Group. Wisconsin Energy is trying to buy Integrys, parent company of Peoples Gas and North Shore Gas of Illinois. The company said if it obtained ICC approval, it would freeze rates for Illinois customers and keep the same number of Illinois employees – about 2,000 – for at least two years, in addition to honoring all labor contracts. The ICC is only one of several state and federal approvals necessary for the acquisition.

More: Milwaukee Business Journal

NRG to Cut Emissions at 4 Coal Plants

NRG Energy said it has a plan to cut emissions at four of its coal-fired stations in the state that would bring the state more than halfway toward meeting new Environmental Protection Agency-mandated emissions limits. The company said it would stop burning coal at one of its Romeoville plant units, convert its Joliet plant to burn natural gas and upgrade the Pekin and Waukegan plants with new emissions-control technology. About 250 jobs would also be cut. NRG said the plan would cut about 16 million tons of carbon dioxide emissions a year. The plan would cost about $567 million, the company said.

More: Chicago Tribune (subscription required)

INDIANA

$400K Grant to Fund Small Solar Projects

The Indiana Association for Community Economic Development received a $400,000 grant to help start up small solar energy projects in the Indiana Michigan Power service territory. The grant, which came from a legal settlement between American Electric Power and the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, will be used to start Solar Uniting Neighbors (SUN). The economic development association said the grant would be enough to provide funding for 10 to 17 solar installations.

More: WANE TV

MICHIGAN

Solar, Wind Metering Growing

Small-scale solar- and wind-power installations in the state have increased their energy production by 18% since 2012, according to a Public Service Commission report. Since a state-mandated metering system went into effect in 2008, the state has seen 1,527 customers enter the net metering program.Under a net metering program, when customers produce more electric energy than they consume, the excess is sent back to the grid and the customer gets a credit. The PSC report noted that the number of net metering customers increased from 1,330 in 2012 to 1,527 in 2013.

More: Michigan Public Service Commission

NEW JERSEY

Environmentalists Urge State to Rejoin RGGI

RGGISourceRGGIClean energy and environmental advocates urged state officials to rejoin the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative during a court-ordered hearing last week. Two years after Gov. Chris Christie withdrew from the RGGI, a state appeals court ruled that the administration and the state Department of Environmental Protection didn’t follow the proper rules, and ordered a hearing to reconsider the move.

While it is unclear whether the court-ordered hearing would have an effect on the decision, many speakers took the opportunity to urge state leaders to rejoin the regional effort.Doug O’Malley, the director of Environment New Jersey, which filed the lawsuit along with the Natural Resources Defense Council, said he hoped the legislature would invalidate the repeal. “Gov. Christie is on the wrong side of public opinion on his decision to pull New Jersey out of this landmark climate program,” O’Malley said.

More: New Jersey Herald

State Consumer Agency Calls for More Protection

The state Division of Rate Counsel is again asking the Board of Public Utilities to tighten rules governing third-party energy suppliers. The consumer advocate’s efforts were spurred by a tough winter, skyrocketing energy prices and widespread accusations of misleading or fraudulent business practices.

Rate Counsel Director Stefanie Brand said her new petition was produced after consultation with the Retail Energy Suppliers Association. “The most important improvement is increased disclosure, in clear and plain language, of all contract terms,’’ one part of the petition explains.

Some of the proposed rules mirror those being considered in the state legislature.

More: NJ Spotlight

Fishermen’s Energy Goes Forward with DOE Funds

fishermensenergySourceFishermensenergyWind energy developer Fishermen’s Energy signed an agreement with the Department of Energy last week, giving it access to almost $47 million to develop a 25-MW wind project off Atlantic City. The project seems to be going forward, even though the New Jersey Board of Public Utilities has denied it ratepayer subsidies and said the project is too expensive and risky. Fishermen’s is appealing that ruling.

One of the terms of the DOE grant is that the project have a customer for its energy one year from now. But the developers are optimistic. “Our goal here in Atlantic City is to build a commercially operational wind farm that demonstrates job creation and specifically to show that these types of projects create benefits that far exceed their costs,” said Chris Wissemann, Fishermen’s CEO.

More: Recharge

NORTH CAROLINA

Study: New State Policies Could Boost Solar

While North Carolina ranks fourth in the nation for overall solar capacity, it is only 10th per capita, behind cloudier states such as New Jersey and Massachusetts, according to a report by an environmental group calling for more solar-friendly state policies.

Environment North Carolina said the state has benefited from the rise of large-scale solar farms but lagged in residential and commercial rooftop systems. The report recommends the state enable third-party sales of electricity, improve net metering laws and expand renewable energy standards.

More: Environment North Carolina

OHIO

State to see 1,000th Utica Shale Well

The state Department of Natural Resources said the 1,000th Utica Shale well will be drilled as early as this week. Through last week 997 horizontal wells had been drilled out of 1,428 permits issued since the shale boom started in 2010.

More: Columbus Business First

Net Metering Case Headed to High Court

OhioSupremeCourtSourceOHIOThe Ohio Supreme Court will be called on to determine how much net metering customers should be paid for electricity they feed back into the grid in a case pitting the Public Utility Commission of Ohio against several large utilities.

PUCO ruled recently that net metering customers are entitled to full value of the electricity, including capacity. FirstEnergy and American Electric Power have argued that their compensation should be based only on the energy portion of their bills. AEP appealed PUCO’s latest ruling, in July, to the state Supreme Court.

More: Midwest Energy News

PENNSYLVANIA

PUC Ponders Limits on Solar Net Metering

The Public Utility Commission is considering a rule that would limit the amount of solar energy customers can sell back to the grid. “By customer-generators producing more electricity and selling it back to the grid and the utility, this could actually be passed through and affect the rates for other customers,” PUC spokeswoman Robin Tilley said. The proposed rule would limit energy production for households and businesses to 110% of annual consumption. The solar industry opposes the rule.

More: WHYY

WEST VIRGINIA

Chesapeake Energy Eyes Shale Fields

CHK_3C_logo.epsState Department of Environmental Protection filings show that Chesapeake Energy, one of the largest shale gas energy players in the Midwest, is looking at the state as its next gas frontier. Chesapeake was one of the first companies to start drilling into Ohio’s Utica Shale Field. The Point Pleasant formation, in West Virginia, could be the scene of the next rush for shale gas production. State Department of Environmental Protection files show that Chesapeake is outlining plans to drill wells in the Point Pleasant formation.

More: Columbus Business Journal

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Norris Departure Opens Another FERC Seat

ferc
(Source: FERC)

It’s time for President Obama to start reviewing resumes again.

Just days after Norman Bay was sworn in as the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission’s fifth member, Democrat John Norris announced he will resign his position almost three years early, creating yet another opening on the panel.

Bay was sworn in Monday after taking a swipe at the PJM energy traders who had dogged him through his confirmation process.

On Friday, Norris confirmed long-standing rumors of his departure by announcing he will leave FERC Aug. 20 to take a post as the Minister-Counselor for the U.S. Department of Agriculture in Rome.

In between, newly promoted Chairman Cheryl LaFleur asserted her authority by filling the General Counsel’s post.

All in all, just another week at 888 First St. NE.

In one of his last acts as director of the FERC Office of Enforcement, Bay authorized the issuance of a Staff Notice of Alleged Violations against a group of investors over what staff said was illegal “wash” trades intended to capitalize on transmission line-loss rebates in PJM.

The notice, issued Tuesday, targets Kevin and Richard Gates, who launched a publicity campaign and lobbied against Bay’s nomination to highlight their complaints over FERC’s investigation. (See related story, PJM UTC Case Likely Headed to Court.)

Obama had indicated his intent to make Bay chairman immediately after his confirmation. But in order to win crucial votes in the Senate, the White House agreed to delay Bay’s promotion until April 15.

Cheryl LaFleur Flexes

That makes LaFleur, who had served as acting chair since November, kind of a Cinderella chairman.

But, apparently emboldened by Obama’s decision July 30 to remove her “acting” title, she asserted her authority Thursday by doing the same for former acting General Counsel David Morenoff, who has been doing that job since October 2012.

Meanwhile, Norris announced he would leave — not to return to his home in Iowa, as some had expected, but to Italy, thanks to Secretary of Agriculture Tom Vilsack.

Norris had served as Vilsack’s chief of staff, both in the Agriculture Department and before, when Vilsack was Iowa’s governor.

Norris issued a statement praising his FERC colleagues before heading off to a camping trip in Maine with his family. He was unavailable for comment yesterday.

Colette Honorable Next?

ferc
Colette Honorable

With Norris departing, speculation on his replacement has focused on Arkansas Public Service Commission Chair Colette Honorable. She was named chair of the Arkansas commission by Gov. Mike Beebe, whom she previously served as chief of staff when he was attorney general. Her six-year term expires in 2017. Honorable is also three-quarters through her one-year term as president of the National Association of Regulatory Utility Commissioners (NARUC).

A lawyer and native of Little Rock, she previously served as executive director of the Arkansas Workforce Investment Board and as an attorney in the Attorney General’s Office, where she worked on Medicaid fraud cases. She has also worked as an attorney at the Center for Arkansas Legal Services, a law clerk in the Arkansas Court of Appeals and as an assistant public defender.

She did not return a request for comment yesterday.

Lame Duck

Norris’ departure was widely expected after he told a conference in June that he would not seek renomination when his term ended in 2017. Norris said industry stakeholders had told him he could not win Senate confirmation if he was reappointed because he is too “pro-consumer.”

Last year, Norris blasted Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) for blocking his bid to become FERC chair. Norris said Reid had opposed his elevation to chairman because the majority leader thought he was “too pro-coal” during his time on the Iowa Utilities Board.

Since last year, Norris has increasingly forged his own path. After issuing 11 dissents or concurring statements in 2010, and 11 in 2011, he issued 19 last year and 11 through the first six months of 2014.

Norris’ wife Jackie ran the 2008 Obama campaign in Iowa and briefly served as Michelle Obama’s chief of staff; she is now executive director of the Points of Light Corporate Institute, an organization that helps companies develop employee-volunteer programs, in D.C.

Before Norris’ announcement last week, an editorial in The Storm Lake Times urged him to return home to run for office, suggesting he was one of the few Democrats who could oust Rep. Steve King or Gov. Terry Branstad. He had run unsuccessfully for the House in 2002.

The Work Goes On

Republican Commissioner Tony Clark said yesterday he will miss working with Norris, who he has known since they were both state regulators.

Clark said while it would be nice to have a full panel, there haven’t been many occasions when the panel locked in 2-2 ties.

While Bay may emphasize new initiatives when he becomes chair, Clark said, much of the commission’s day-to day activities will be unchanged. “A lot of the work is just driven by the filings themselves,” he said.

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PJM: Can’t Delay Interface Postings for FTR Auctions

interfacePJM officials last week defended their practice of creating interfaces to capture operator actions in response to voltage problems, saying they can’t guarantee the constraints will be modeled in Financial Transmission Right auctions.

In the last year, PJM has created “closed loop” interfaces in at least four locations so that operator actions — such as sub-zonal dispatch of demand response — are captured in Locational Marginal Prices rather than uplift. PJM said it must use the interfaces to set prices because its modeling software can only set prices for thermal constraints, not voltage problems.

But in its effort to reduce uplift, PJM is exacerbating FTR underfunding, DC Energy’s Bruce Bleiweis told the Market Implementation Committee during a discussion last week.

PJM has promised to provide notice of any new interfaces at least one day before implementing them. But that’s not enough time for FTR holders to react, said Bleiweis, who noted that the RTO requires 90 days’ notice before implementing special protective schemes (SPS).

He proposed PJM provide notice of the potential need for a new constraint as soon as it has identified one and discuss the results of their analysis at the next meeting of the MIC or Markets and Reliability Committee. Interfaces should be announced prior to the next FTR or Balance of Planning Period auction and not implemented until the beginning of the next month, Bleiweis said.

PJM “shouldn’t be in the position of choosing who will gain and who will lose,” he said.

PJM officials said Bleiweis’ proposal was unworkable.

“A lot of those things come up quicker than the time that Bruce would want,” said Adam Keech, director of wholesale market operations. “We might know two days before we need it, not 45 days. Forty-five days later we may not need it. We’re just printing uplift in between.”

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Company Briefs

VivintSourceVivintVivint Solar, an upstart business in the home security and automation fields, is planning an initial public offering for its solar segment, according to sources. Vivint’s IPO could come out as soon as September.

Vivint is the second biggest residential solar installation company in the U.S., behind SolarCity, which went public in December 2012 at $8 per share. Solar City shares closed Friday at $70.14.

More: Utility Dive

Sunoco Logistics Eying 2nd Shale Gas Pipeline

Sunoco Logistics, still finalizing its first cross-state pipeline in Pennsylvania to transport Marcellus Shale gas liquids, has already signed up a customer for a second pipeline. Austrian chemical company Borealis signed a 10-year agreement to buy ethane produced in the Marcellus and Utica shale fields. Ethane is used in plastics production.

The new agreement would go into effect in 2016. Sunoco is in the final stages of constructing its first line, Mariner East. It is scheduled to go into operation later this year. That project generated controversy among residents of the areas the pipeline crossed. Sunoco has been asking the state Public Utility Commission to designate the pipeline a public utility, which would ease the process of gaining rights of way. So far, it has been unsuccessful.

More: The Philadelphia Inquirer

LaSalle Unit 2 Shuts Down with Valve Problem

(Source: Exelon)
(Source: Exelon)

Unit 2 at Exelon’s LaSalle Nuclear Generating Station went into automatic shutdown last Tuesday when one of the station’s steam valves closed. The shutdown went according to plan, and no damage or impact on customers occurred, a station spokesperson said. The company is looking into the cause.

More: News Tribune (subscription required)

TVA Layoffs Reduced by Attrition, Retirements

The Tennessee Valley Authority said last week that it will accomplish most of its 2,000 job reductions through attrition, retirements and voluntary resignations, avoiding the need for massive firings. The cuts are TVA’s largest in 20 years.

TVA began the year with about 12,500 employees. This is down from 51,000 employees in 1981. TVA President Bill Johnson said the employee reductions are necessary in order to cut down on expenses and to keep electricity rates competitive in the region.

Labor unions are concerned that the layoffs merely mean that TVA is hiring more contractors. “As TVA is laying off some of our workers, they are filling some of that work with contractors or selecting managers or others to do the work from outside of our bargaining unit. Those are our major concerns,” said Faye Headrick, senior international representative for the Office and Professional Employees International union. The union represented 3,000 TVA employees 40 years ago but only about 600 now.

More: Chattanooga Times Free Press

FirstEnergy’s Harrison Plant Union Gets Contract

Workers at FirstEnergy’s Harrison Power Station in Haywood, W.Va., have been given their first contract. The Utility Workers Union of America, which has been negotiating since 2010, announced the contract last week. The coal-fired plant employs 184 workers. They’ve been fighting for a contract since they voted to unionize in September 2010. The 3.5-year collective bargaining agreement covers wages, benefits and working conditions. The plant was owned by Allegheny Energy and became part of FE’s fleet through a merger in February 2011.

More: The State Journal

PSEG One Step Closer to Permit for New Nuke

PSEG Nuclear is close to filing a draft environmental impact study on its plan to build a new nuclear station on Artificial Island. The company would need to complete a land swap of 631 acres with the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers on the island in order to go forward. Other studies, including a storm surge study, are also necessary. The environmental impact study could be filed as soon as September. Final action could come late next year, with a separate decision on technologies, design and construction to follow.

More: The News Journal

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Q2 Earnings Roundup

FirstEnergy, Duke Energy, NRG Energy, Dynegy and AES all announced second-quarter earnings last week with FirstEnergy capturing headlines for its decision to exit most retail sales and AES saying it won’t sell Dayton Power and Light after all.

FirstEnergy Announces Retail Exit as Earnings Rebound

earningsFE executives said that price volatility due to extreme weather and a “fundamental” change in retail markets has made the company decide to exit retail.

“We intend to exit the medium commercial and industrial, or MCI, and mass-market retail channels as existing contracts expire, but we will continue to serve strategic large industrial and commercial customers as well as our governmental aggregation in [provider of last resort] channels as appropriate,” FirstEnergy CEO Anthony Alexander said last week.

Volatility, eroding price stability and the need to swallow costs on fixed-rate offers translated into too much risk, Chief Financial Officer James Pearson said. “We were already taking steps to be more selective in our sales to the large and medium-sized commercial and industrial customers during the second quarter,” Pearson said.

The company reported earnings of 16 cents per share in the second quarter on earnings of $64 million and revenue of nearly $3.5 billion, compared to a loss of $164 million, or 39 cents per share, with revenue of more than $3.5 billion for the same period the year before.

Pearson said operating earnings were driven by a lower commodity margin, higher investment income and lower operating and maintenance costs.

Meanwhile, the four Pennsylvania subsidiaries of FE last week filed rate-increase requests to help pay for infrastructure enhancements.

Under the proposals, residential customers who use 1,000 kWh a month would see their bills increase by 11.8% for Penn Power, 14.7% for West Penn Power, 16.3% for Penelec and 17.8% for Met-Ed. A company spokesman said the new rates would allow the company to use technology to reduce the number of outages and the number of customers affected when outages occur.

The utilities want the state Public Utility Commission to approve the rates effective Oct. 3.

FE’s Ohio utilities filed a request to sign a 15-year purchase-power agreement with two unregulated FirstEnergy Solutions generators. (See related story, FE Wants Regulated Companies to Subsidize Generation)

AES: We’ll Keep DPL After All

earningsAES, parent of DPL, has changed its mind about the company again. Three months after saying it was seeking buyers for DPL, parent of Dayton Power and Light, AES said the company is off the block.

The offers received “were not attractive relative to the long-term value to AES,” Chief Financial Officer Tom O’Flynn said during a conference call last week. “We therefore decided not to sell.”

Dayton Power and Light owns 2,897 MW of capacity, most of it coal-fired. DPL subsidiary DPL Energy owns 556 MW of peaking capacity in Ohio and Indiana. AES bought DPL in November 2011 for $3.5 billion, saying it wanted to increase its presence in the Midwest, where it already owned Indianapolis Power & Light.

At its first-quarter earnings call in March, however, O’Flynn told analysts AES would “explore all potential options to optimize” DPL, including a sale.

An improving wholesale energy market is one of the things that convinced AES to hang on to DPL, for the time being.

“The market is still higher than what we were projecting at the start of the year,” O’Flynn said. “Second, we saw an improvement in PJM [capacity] prices, which doubled, albeit from low level at the last auction, and outstanding proposals to provide additional improvement.”

He also cited a plan to improve generation plant performance and its multiyear commercial hedging strategy.

AES reported second-quarter earnings of 28 cents a share on revenue of $340 million, compared to 35 cents per share on revenue of $289 million for the same period last year.

Duke Earnings up 80%

earningsSecond-quarter earnings for Duke rose 80% over the same period last year, fueled in part by higher customer rates in the Carolinas from 2013 rates cases, warmer-than-usual weather and higher PJM capacity prices.

The company reported earnings per share of 86 cents on $609 million in profit and revenue of $5.17 billion, compared to 48 cents/$339 million/$4.83 billion for the same period last year. The company also credited lower taxes and lower operational costs.

In a conference call, Duke CEO Lynn Good highlighted the company’s five-year growth plan through 2018, in which it will spend $18 billion to $20 billion on investments. These include $1.9 billion in three large natural gas-fired generation plants in Florida, and $600 million for a 750-MW plant in South Carolina.

This is on top of the company’s recent announcement that it was buying out North Carolina Eastern Municipal Power Agency’s ownership of 700 MW at Duke Energy Progress plants for $1.2 billion.

Good spent a significant amount of time on the call addressing the company’s Dan River coal ash spill and cleanup. Good said cleanup expenses were about $20 million through June and that she did not expect total costs to be material.

“We are cooperating with and defending the company in ongoing investigations resulting from the Dan River accident,” she said. Good noted that there have been legislative moves to require Duke to clean up some, or all, of the company’s remaining coal ash ponds. North Carolina’s legislature adjourned without approving a bill, and Good would not say what the total cost could be. But she said that depending on legislative and regulatory action, some or all of Duke’s costs could be covered.

“We believe the recoverability of coal ash based in closure cost will be determined by the Carolina’s Commission.”

NRG Posts Loss

earningsNRG saw a downturn in the second quarter, posting a loss of $97 million, or 30 cents a share, compared with a profit of $124 million, or 37 cents a share, for the same period last year. Its retail operations posted a loss, but its wholesale businesses all posted profits for the quarter.

CEO David W. Crane said the past two quarters prove NRG’s move to diversify away from strictly wholesale generation was a good one.

“Never before in my 11 years at NRG do I recall a first half of the year where we were so whipsawed by the weather,” he said. “A severely cold winter followed by a summer, which, to date, through the second quarter and so far into the third quarter, has been completely devoid of extreme weather in any of our core markets.

“Fortunately, to some degree, our diversification away from being exclusively a wholesale generator, first, into retail and then into clean energy, has increased the resilience of our earnings in the face of mild weather and tepid wholesale electricity demand.”

Perhaps the biggest news out of NRG is its decision to reorganize its business units. The three business units will be NRG Business, holding the wholesale generation business; NRG Home, which includes retail operations such as residential solar; and NRG Renew, its large-scale solar, wind and other renewables business.

Crane acknowledged on the conference call that yet another reorganization may be confusing for some investors but said it makes sense nonetheless.

“The way we’re organized going forward allows senior executives of the team to sort of focus in their area and win in their area because each area is pretty distinct,” he said. “I mean they’re mutually reinforcing, but each has different competitors.”

Dynegy Revenue up, Earnings Down

earningsDynegy reported a loss of $123 million, or $1.23 a share, compared to a loss of $145 million, or $1.45 a share, for the same period last year. Revenue for the second quarter rose to $521 million from $301 million a year ago, a 73% jump.

Dynegy has narrowed its losses since coming out of bankruptcy in 2012. Its second-quarter operating loss in its coal-fired generation business was $5 million, compared to a $49 million loss for the same period in 2013. Its gas segment shows a similar story, with a second-quarter loss of $2 million, compared to a loss of $36 million for the same period last year.

Dynegy President and CEO Robert Flexon is taking a long-term view.

“The underlying fundamentals continue to indicate improving capacity prices and higher energy prices and volatility,” he said. “These improvements are driven by a market expectation of reduced supply as a result of plant retirements, the majority of which will occur in the 2015-2016 timeframe.”

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FERC Staff Accuses Powhatan as Bay Moves Up — UPDATE

PJM UTC Trades at Issue in High-Profile Case

By Ted Caddell

After nearly four years of investigation, the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission Tuesday publicly accused an energy trading firm of market manipulation in a case that dogged FERC enforcement chief Norman Bay through his confirmation as commissioner.

The staff “notice of alleged violations” accuses Houlian (Alan) Chen and the Powhatan Energy Fund LLC of engaging in “manipulative” up-to-congestion trades in PJM in 2010.

Norman Bay, with Richard Gates looking on, responds to questions during his Senate confirmation hearing in May.
Norman Bay, with Richard Gates looking on, responds to questions during his Senate confirmation hearing in May.

The notice was issued the day after Bay was sworn in as a FERC commissioner and his deputy at the commission’s Office of Enforcement, Larry Gasteiger, was named acting director. Bay’s handling of the Powhatan case was cited during his Senate confirmation hearing in May as evidence of what critics said was his unit’s harsh and unfair tactics.

[Editor’s Note: An earlier version of this article inaccurately stated that FERC had “charged” Powhatan. The notice is merely a public disclosure of a previously non-public investigation.]

Powhatan, based in West Chester, Pa., is a private investment fund headed by portfolio manager Kevin Gates and his twin brother Rich. FERC staff says Powhatan and a predecessor fund netted $4.7 million in profits in 2010 by taking advantage of a loophole for making low-risk up-to-congestion trades to profit from line loss refunds.

The investigation was disclosed under a policy approved by FERC in December 2009 to balance “the need to protect the subject’s confidentiality in the early stages of an investigation with the public interest of promoting additional transparency during investigations.” It allows the Director of Enforcement to authorize a Preliminary Notice of Violations “after the subject of the investigation has had the opportunity to respond to staff’s preliminary findings letter.”

“In our experience, once staff provides its preliminary conclusions to a subject, the existence of the investigation is likely to become public in any event, through a negotiated settlement, an order to show cause, or, in the case of a publicly traded company, a securities filing,” the commission said in approving the policy. “The absence of disclosure means that a greater amount of time passes before the public becomes aware of potential violations that enforcement staff is investigating.”

Kevin Gates on Tuesday issued a statement vowing to fight the allegations. “We’ve read it and it makes no sense. We will aggressively fight their allegations. We can only speculate on FERC’s motives,” he wrote. “When a regulator is not concerned with the facts or the law, then traders can become easy targets if it has a political agenda.”

It is unclear what, if anything, FERC will do next. FERC staff advised Powhatan of its preliminary findings in August 2013 and Powhatan responded with its rebuttal in October. Powhatan said it has rejected an earlier settlement offer from enforcement staff.

“This is an acknowledgement that an investigation is going on,” FERC spokeswoman Mary O’Driscoll said today. “This is not an indication of whether the commission is going to go to court. There is no other step at this point.”

The case has drawn widespread attention and was highlighted in a Wall Street Journal op-ed penned by former FERC general counsel William Scherman. In it, Scherman accused Bay of driving Wall Street banks out of energy trading with heavy-handed enforcement tactics.

Republicans grilled Bay on the case and his management of the enforcement unit during his confirmation hearing. Bay declined to comment on the Powhatan case, which was then “non-public,” but dismissed Scherman’s allegations of due process violations as untrue.

FERC's Larry Gasteiger answers questions about FERC enforcement as Michael Spofford of Bingham McCutchen (R) listens at an Energy Bar Association panel discussion in April.
FERC’s Larry Gasteiger answers questions about FERC enforcement as Michael Spofford of Bingham McCutchen (R) listens at an Energy Bar Association panel discussion in April.

Gasteiger responded to charges that FERC was unfairly targeting traders during a panel discussion at an Energy Bar Association conference earlier this year. “We take these cases extremely seriously, whether it’s individuals or companies,” he said. “We won’t take on a case unless we think we have an extremely solid case to present to the commission and if necessary to take it to a hearing before an [administrative law judge] or a district court proceeding.”

Tuesday’s notice alleges that Chen, trading on Powhatan’s behalf, placed “millions of megawatt hours of offsetting trades between the same two trading points, in the same volumes and the same hours — an intentional effort to cancel out the financial consequences from any spread between the two trading points while capturing large amounts of MLSA [Marginal Loss Surplus Allocation] payments.” FERC charges this was “wash trading,” which is illegal.

The Gates brothers said it was savvy trading and legal until the “loophole” was closed later in 2010.

After being under investigation by Bay’s enforcement unit for more than three years with no charges filed against them, the Gates brothers went on the offensive. In March, they released documents they say prove they have been unfairly hounded. The fund enlisted testimonials from an all-star team, including Susan J. Court, Bay’s predecessor as enforcement chief, Harvard professor William Hogan and John N. Estes III, a prominent defense attorney. (See PJM Trader Calls FERC on Manipulation Probe.)

The Gates brothers filed a Freedom of Information Act lawsuit to obtain agency records relevant to their case, lobbied the Senate to block Bay’s confirmation and lurked behind Bay during his confirmation hearing. In a letter to the editor published in The News Journal days before Bay’s confirmation hearing, Richard Gates said they were offered a settlement by FERC.

“While that would have been the easier and cheaper thing to do, Powhatan declined,” he wrote. “Instead, we planned for protracted litigation against the federal government.”

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Federal Briefs

FreeportSourceFreeportThe Federal Energy Regulatory Commission last week gave its OK to a Texas liquefied natural gas export terminal to be located near Freeport, Texas. The Freeport Liquefaction Project would be built on the site of an existing import terminal. The decision adopts a recommendation by the commission’s environmental staff requiring the company follow more than 80 environmental remediation plans. The U.S. Department of Energy has conditionally approved the Freeport project already.

This is the third LNG export project to receive FERC approval. Ten LNG export projects have applications pending before the commission.

The Energy Department also approved an LNG terminal to be built near the mouth of the Columbia River in Oregon. The authorization — conditional upon final approval from FERC — will allow the terminal to export LNG to countries without a free trade agreement with the U.S., such as Japan, China and India. Other local, state and federal approvals are needed before the project can break ground.

More: FERC; The Oregonian

DOE Renewable Official Cites Dominion’s Wind Plans

David Danielson, the Department of Energy’s assistant secretary of energy efficiency and renewable energy, pointed to Dominion Resources’ offshore turbine project as a sign of things to come. “This will be Virginia pioneering something nationally,” he said during a local Hampton Roads Chamber of Commerce luncheon over the weekend.

Dominion is gathering offshore wind power data with two 550-foot tall turbines, funded in part with a $47 million federal grant.

More: Virginian-Pilot

Xcel Energy Asks Fed Rail Board for Help

ShercoSourceXcelXcel Energy CEO Ben Fowke has appealed to the  to help unclog rail deliveries of coal, saying carrier BNSF Railway’s slowed deliveries threaten to shut down a 2,500-MW plant.

The Sherco plant, about 45 miles northwest of Minneapolis, provides about 25% of the power for Xcel customers in a five-state region. Fowke said the plant is short about 810,000 tons of coal.

Other utilities in North Dakota, Arkansas and Kansas have reported similar problems. La Crosse-based Dairyland Power Cooperative said it could run out of coal at one of its plants by January if BNSF doesn’t speed up its deliveries. Some critics say the shortage is because rail carriers have experienced a huge rise in crude oil shipments from northern regions, but BNSF denies it. The carrier said it has added more equipment and personnel to its lines and is working through the backlog.

More:La Crosse Tribune

NRC Eyes Action at Peach Bottom

drycaskstorageSouroceWikiA security violation seen during a Nuclear Regulatory Commission inspection at Exelon’s Peach Bottom Atomic Power Station in Delta, Pa., has the commission considering remedial action for the plant operators. NRC spokesman Neil Sheehan said the violation was due to a flaw in the plant’s security program, but for security reasons he wouldn’t elaborate.

Letters from the NRC to Exelon Nuclear identified the problem as a piece of security equipment at the plant’s dry cask storage area, an exterior site where spent fuel is stored in concrete vaults. A plant spokeswoman said that the problem has since been fixed.

More: York Daily Record

Obama Picks 2 for Open Slots at NRC

Stephen Burns
Stephen Burns

President Obama nominated two energy experts to fill slots that will soon be open at the Nuclear Regulatory Commission.

Jeff Baran, aide to Rep. Henry Waxman (D-Calif.), was named to replace Bill Magwood, who has accepted a position with the Paris-based Nuclear Energy Agency. Baran would finish Magwood’s term, which expires June 30, 2015.

Former NRC general counsel Stephen Burns would replace George Apostolakis, who left June 30 after the White House did not re-nominate him. If confirmed by the Senate, Burns’ term would run through June 30, 2019.

More: The Hill; The White House

Governors Join Miners in Pro-Coal Rally

West Virginia Gov. Earl Ray Tomblin joined miners from his state, Pennsylvania Gov. Tom Corbett and Ohio Lt. Gov. Mary Taylor in a “Rally to Support American Energy” last week. The rally was held in Pittsburgh, one of the sites of a public hearing on the Environmental Protection Agency’s proposed carbon emission rule.

“Today’s rally gives us an opportunity to come together and explain the EPA should be working with us toward energy independence, not mandating unilateral restrictions on our nation’s energy production,” Tomblin said. “That’s why our state is joining the fight against the EPA’s proposed rules to establish unreasonable restrictions on carbon dioxide emissions.”

More: The Logan Banner

W.Va., Ohio, Ky. Sue over EPA Carbon Rule

Twelve states, including West Virginia, Ohio and Kentucky, filed suit Friday to block the Environmental Protection Agency’s proposed rule on carbon emissions from power plants. West Virginia Attorney General Patrick Morrisey said the suit was an effort to prevent regulation “that will have devastating effects on West Virginia’s jobs and its economy.”

The suit was filed in the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit. The other plaintiffs are Alabama, Indiana, Kansas, Louisiana, Nebraska, Oklahoma, South Carolina, South Dakota and Wyoming. The states said a U.S. Supreme Court ruling prohibits the EPA from issuing power-plant rules under one section of the Clean Air Act, known as 111(d), when it has already regulated them under a separate section.

David Doniger, a lawyer at the Natural Resources Defense Council, called the suit “laughable.” Lawyer Scott Segal, an opponent of the rule, said the suit was likely the first of several challenges. “I wouldn’t be surprised if one gets kicked to the Supreme Court,” he said. (See related story, FERC Split on Reliability Analysis on EPA Rule.)

More: The New York Times; Bloomberg

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Inspector General: EPA Not Doing Enough to Curb Natural Gas Leaks

natural gas
Researchers mapped almost 6,000 natural gas leaks across 1,500 road miles in D.C., finding large leaks east of the U.S. Capitol but few over the National Mall, where natural gas pipelines are less common. (Source: Robert B. Jackson, et al., “Natural Gas Pipeline Leaks Across Washington, DC,” Environmental Science and Technology.)

Federal officials should do more to reduce leaks in natural gas distribution pipelines that are costing consumers and undercutting efforts to combat climate change, the Environmental Protection Agency’s Inspector General said in a report last week.

The report estimates that about $200 million worth of natural gas escapes from distribution lines annually because of a lack of coordination between EPA and federal pipeline regulators and a lack of financial incentives for utilities.

Methane is responsible for 9% of U.S. gas emissions and has a global warming potential that is more than 20 times that of carbon dioxide. About 10% of methane emissions are from distribution pipelines with leaks most likely on older pipelines made of cast iron, wrought iron and unprotected steel. Such pipelines account for about 8% of the 1.2 million miles of distribution mains in the U.S.

Seven PJM states — Ohio, Pennsylvania, New Jersey, Michigan, West Virginia, Illinois and Maryland — rank in the top 10 for the most miles of cast/wrought iron or unprotected steel pipelines, the IG said.

natural gasPresident Obama’s 2013 Climate Action Plan called for the EPA and other federal agencies to develop a strategy to address methane emissions. But the EPA does not regulate methane emissions from the distribution sector and the Department of Transportation’s Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration, which regulates pipeline safety, requires local distribution companies (LDCs) to fix only those leaking pipelines that represent safety risks.

Only 22 states (or utilities within the states) have adopted initiatives to replace cast iron or unprotected steel pipelines, the report said.

Leaks can be fixed by inserting flexible plastic liners inside existing lines or using composite wrap to repair defects such as dents and corrosion. Some LDCs run regular inspection and maintenance programs.

But LDCs often have no incentive to fix leaks because they are allowed to pass on to customers the costs of lost gas while the benefits of reduced fuel costs are also passed on to consumers. “Thus, there is a financial disincentive for LDCs to proactively locate and repair leaks,” the report said. “The cost of the product lost is easy for LDCs to recover while the costs to repair, replace or retrofit pipelines poses more of a cost recovery challenge.”

The report recommends that the EPA work with the PHMSA to toughen regulations and partner with state utility regulators to develop ratemaking models that incent LDCs to proactively repair leaks.

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PJM, IMM Issue Warning on Interchange Scheduling

PJM and the Independent Market Monitor warned last week that they will refer traders who improperly arbitrage price differences between PJM and other regions to the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission for enforcement action.

PJM and the IMM said they will target traders who schedule interchange trades for the last 15 minutes of an hour based on price differentials in the first portion of the hour, a scheme known as “slamming the close.”

Although PJM settles trades based on hourly average prices, it posts prices on a five-minute basis. “Historically we have seen traders submit significant megawatt volumes of transactions only for the last 15 minutes of an hour once they have seen the five-minute prices for the first 20 minutes,” PJM spokeswoman Paula DuPont-Kidd explained.

The PJM-IMM notice said that such “transactions provide no value by way of enhanced market efficiencies or operational benefit and could constitute manipulative, harmful or inappropriate market behavior.”

It also said they would refer to FERC interchange transactions between PJM and external balancing authorities that began at 45 minutes past the hour and end at the top of the next hour, as well as transactions “that would result in the same or similar settlement.”

The notice cited the following examples:

  • Modifying the volume of an existing schedule for the last 15 minutes of the hour.
  • Scheduling a transaction that begins at 45 minutes past the hour and continues into the next hour but is partially offset by another transaction in the opposite direction that begins at the top of the hour. This would include trades by corporate affiliates.
  • Transactions that are scheduled to begin at 45 minutes past the hour and stop at 15 minutes past the top of the next hour if officials believe they were submitted to exploit PJM’s hourly integrated settlements.

2008 Rule

PJM and MISO implemented rules in 2008 to prevent such trading, with PJM requiring that that interchange transactions have a minimum duration of 45 minutes.

But FERC ruled in April that PJM’s minimum duration was inconsistent with Order 764, which required 15-minute energy scheduling intervals with 20-minute notifications. (See FERC Rejects PJM Schedule Rules.) Order 764, issued in 2012, is intended to remove barriers to variable generation sources such as wind.

In 2007, MISO and its Independent Market Monitor determined that nearly 60% of intra-hour schedules between MISO and PJM occurred in the final 15 minutes of the hour. PJM said this resulted in interchange spikes of up to 1,000 MW — increasing uplift charges because of the need to call on combustion turbines to balance the generation swings.

Partial Path Scheduling

PJM and the IMM said they also may refer traders that submit external interchange schedules that appear to have been designed to exploit price differentials and do not result in physical energy flow: “For example, multiple interchange schedules, each of which represents a partial schedule that does not reflect the full physical energy path, or schedules that are in the opposite direction of a portion of a larger transaction that involves multiple Balancing Authorities so as to ‘cancel out’ the physical flow that would otherwise be caused by a portion of the larger transaction.”

Traders who believe they have “a bona fide commercial rationale” for any prohibited transactions should discuss the issue with PJM and the IMM beforehand, they said.

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PJM MRC to Consider Settlement Rule Changes

The Markets and Reliability Committee last week heard first reading on proposed deadline changes recommended by the Market Settlement Subcommittee. Assuming they clear the Market Implementation Committee Wednesday, the issues will be brought to an MRC vote at its next meeting Aug. 21.

Power Meter and InSchedule Deadlines

More than two-thirds of Market Settlement Subcommittee members polled supported the following changes:

o    Extending the deadlines for electric distribution companies (EDCs) to submit Power Meter and InSchedule data to address problems with reporting output for non-utility generators. The delay will allow a higher percentage of actual load data to be reported in InSchedule, particularly for EDCs with smart meters, and reduce the reconciliation adjustments.

    • Power Meter deadlines would be extended by an hour effective Oct. 1.

o    Monday – Thursday Operating Days: Next business day @ 4 p.m. Eastern Prevailing Time (EPT)

o    Friday – Sunday Operating Days: Monday @ 4 p.m. EPT

    • InSchedule deadlines would be extended by a day effective Oct. 1.

o    Monday – Thursday Operating Days: Two business days @ 4 p.m. EPT

o    Friday – Sunday Operating Days: Tuesday @ 4 p.m. EPT

o    Extending meter correction data deadlines by one month. The change would allow more time for generators and EDCs to gather data, improving accuracy of submitted corrections and reducing or eliminating later bilateral adjustments. PJM also would gain additional time to process and include the meter corrections in the bill.

o    Allowing load reconciliation data to be considered in balancing operating reserve (BOR) for deviation calculations, effective Jan. 1, 2015. The change will affect all participants with BOR deviations. Load reconciliation billing would be performed under the current 60-day schedule.

Capacity Charge Reconciliation

About 78% of Market Settlement Subcommittee members polled indicated support for a change to provide relief for Pennsylvania EDCs squeezed by PJM and Pennsylvania Public Utility Commission deadlines.

PJM requires EDCs to upload their Peak Load Contribution (PLC) and Network Service Peak Load (NSPL) data to eRPM 36 hours prior to the operating day. The Pennsylvania PUC issued an order in April requiring that EDCs switch customers to new energy suppliers within three business days of notification of the switch. Under the PUC’s previous rules, it took 11 to 40 days to switch electric suppliers.

The new rule gives EDCs only one day to update their records to recognize the change and correct the PLC and NSPL values, raising the possibility of retail suppliers receiving inaccurate capacity charges.

The subcommittee proposal would retain PJM’s 36-hour advance submission deadline but allow corrections to be made until noon the next business day.