PJM, ERCOT and CAISO have asked the Commodities Futures Trading Commission to remove language from a draft order that they say could undermine the broad exemptions the commission granted RTOs and ISOs in 2013.
The three grid operators filed joint comments last week concerning CFTC’s May 2015 draft order on a request from SPP seeking the same exemptions from the Commodity Exchange Act that the commission granted the six other RTOs and ISOs in 2013.
CFTC’s 2013 order exempted electricity transactions subject to tariffs approved by the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission from most provisions of the CEA while retaining its general anti-fraud and anti-manipulation authority over such transactions. SPP was the only grid operator not party to the 2013 order because its day-ahead market, the Integrated Marketplace, was not fully implemented until March 2014. (See CFTC Approves Dodd-Frank Exemption for RTOs.)
Private Rights of Action
The three grid operators said they are concerned that the CFTC draft order to SPP included, for the first time, a statement of its intent “to preserve private rights of action” under Section 22 of the CEA.
“Although the proposed exemption involves another RTO, the commission’s insertion … can be construed as a retroactive attempt to modify the ISO-RTO final order and, therefore, raises fundamental fairness and regulatory policy
