On February 18, 2021, the FERC revisited its evaluation of the 1999 Policy Statement on the Certification of New Interstate Natural Gas Facilities and is soliciting new data and additional stakeholder points of view that would help the agency update the process by which it reviews proposed natural gas projects. Recognizing that many changes have occurred since its initial inquiry three years ago, the FERC is focusing on adding to the record already established in response to its April 2018 Notice of Inquiry (NOI), and it is soliciting comments on new questions that add to or modify the initial NOI. {expires: 2021-05-10}
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On January 21, 2021, the FERC Commissioner, Neil Chatterjee and Pradeep Kumar Pujari, chairperson of the Central Electricity Regulatory Commission (CERC) of India, signed a memorandum of understanding (MOU) between the FERC and the CERC to share regulatory experiences and practices. This MOU is the product of three years of discussions among the Commissioner, the Chairperson, and staff from both agencies and details a variety of issues ranging from development and monitoring of power markets and issues related to: (1) regulatory initiatives for facilitating investment in the power sector; (2) integrating renewable energy into the electric grid; (3) transmission pricing; (4) grid reliability; (5) technical training, and (6) regulatory practices.

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As a leader in the XBRL community and a provider of robust software for structured data reporting for more than a decade, Novaworks is proud to announce our newest solution to XBRL-based compliance: XBRLworks. XBRLworks is a streamlined, easy-to-use XBRL application that will launch with support for the new FERC XBRL mandate. In 2020, the FERC officially adopted XBRL as its solution to modernizing its approach to regulated financial and other reporting in the energy industry. XBRL presents a method of tagging (or marking-up) data that adds key contextual information through dimensionality defined by an XBRL taxonomy.
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On January 19, 2021, the FERC announced that it is seeking public comment related to potential modifications to its methods for requiring financial assurance measures in hydroelectric licenses. These steps are meant to guarantee that licensees can satisfy license conditions and maintain their projects in a secure condition.
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On December 22, 2020, the FERC released its Assessment of Demand Response and Advanced Metering. Issuance of this annual report, now in its fifteenth year of publication, is required under section 1252(e)(3) of the Energy Policy Act of 2005. The details presented in the report were drawn from the latest publicly available data (2018 data for retail markets and 2019 data for wholesale markets) that is used to gauge demand response potential. The report also contains FERC staff findings using non-public data to assess demand response activity in California during the summer 2020 when the state experienced four out of its five hottest August days since 1985. Continue reading "FERC Publishes 2020 Assessment of Demand..." »

On December 17, 2020, the FERC established a new index level to calculate annual changes for interstate oil pipeline rate ceilings. This index level adjustment comes after the FERC concluded its fifth five-year review of the index under Order No. 561. In addition, the FERC reviewed comments responding to a Notice of Inquiry (NOI) issued June 18, 2020 and examined the page 700 data from FERC Form No. 6, Annual Report of Oil Pipeline Companies. The FERC has set this new index level of Producer Price Index for Finished Goods plus 0.78 percent (PPI-FG+0.78%) for the five-year period from July 1, 2021, to June 30, 2026. Continue reading "FERC Releases New Five-Year Index Level for..." »

On December 17, 2020, the FERC acted on two proposals to revise its policy that guides price indices referenced in natural gas and electric tariffs. Natural gas price indices are weighted average prices derived from sets of fixed-price natural gas transactions within distinct geographical boundaries. Market participants voluntarily report these prices to a price index developer. In both the physical and financial energy markets, natural gas price indices are essential as they help price billions of dollars of natural gas and electricity transactions annually. Continue reading "FERC Proposes Changes to Price Indices Policy" »

The FERC released its 2020 Annual Report on Enforcement, the fourteenth such report, on November 19, 2020. Prepared by FERC’s Office of Enforcement (OE), the report provides information about the office’s activities over the last fiscal year, including activities performed by the office’s Divisions of Investigations (DOI), Audits and Accounting (DAA), and Analytics and Surveillance (DAS). The report also summarizes audits, litigation filings, and settlements which were approved by the FERC and are publicly available. Continue reading "FERC Presents the 2020 Annual Report on..." »

On November 19, 2020, the FERC affirmed Order No. 872, the final rule that amended regulations implementing sections 201 and 210 of the Public Utility Regulatory Policies Act of 1978 (PURPA). This affirmation addresses major modifications that have been made to the nation’s energy markets. Continue reading "FERC Affirms and Clarifies PURPA Final Rule" »

XBRL US recently announced that it will host a free 60-minute webinar on Wednesday, October 28, 2020 at 3:00 PM EDT, to discuss whether regulators can build an efficient, cost-effective data standards program that establishes a long-term infrastructure while allowing for rapid responses to changing reporting needs. Continue reading "XBRL US to Present October 28 Webinar:..." »

On October 15th, FERC proposed a policy statement clarifying that it has authority over organized wholesale electric market rules that incorporate a state-determined carbon price in those markets. The proposed policy statement is also meant to encourage regional electric market operators to investigate and consider the benefits of instituting such rules.
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On October 2, FERC published recommendations to help users, owners, and operators of the bulk-power system improve their compliance with the mandatory Critical Infrastructure Protection (CIP) reliability standards as well as their overall cybersecurity stance. Staff from FERC’s Office of Electric Reliability and Office of Enforcement partnered with staff from the North American Electric Reliability Corporation and its regional entities to perform the audits. Continue reading "FERC Staff Publishes Report on Lessons Learned..." »

On October 1st, FERC released the schedule for its open meetings for calendar year 2021. The open meetings are freely accessible by the public consistent with the Government in the Sunshine Act, and the contents of the meeting are posted on FERC’s website. Continue reading "FERC Releases Commission Open Meeting Schedule..." »

In 2019, the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) revised its electronic filing format to incorporate structured data in the eXtensible Business Reporting Language (XBRL) format. As has been the case with other federal regulators, the move to adopt XBRL is being undertaken to modernize the reporting environment and increase efficiency in submitting and consuming data. Broad support across the industry also helped drive the action.
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On September 15th, FERC Chairman Neil Chatterjee announced a new joint venture with Virginia Tech to co-host the next annual EnVision Forum. The two organizations hope the conference will provide an opportunity to explore the technology-driven concerns challenging the energy industry. Continue reading "FERC, Virginia Tech Introduce EnVision 2021..." »