DC Circuit Says Energy Regulator Must Reconsider Cost Of New England’s Winter Reliability Program
A three judge panel for the Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia ruled yesterday that the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) decision to approve a winter reliability program submitted by New England’s grid operator in 2013 should have considered “how much of the program cost was attributable to profit and risk mark-up.”
The DC Circuit agreed with TransCanada and the Retail Energy Supply Association, which had jointly filed the complaint challenging New England’s winter reliability program, that “without this information, FERC could not properly assess whether the Program’s rates were just and reasonable.”
The decision remanded the case to FERC “so that it may either offer a reasoned justification for the Order or revise its disposition to ensure that the rates under the Program are just and reasonable.”
