18 CFR - Conservation of Power and Water Resources

In accordance with of the Commission's regulations, the Commission, by its designee, the Executive Director, issues this annual update to the fee schedule in the appendix to the part, which lists per-acre rental fees by county (or other geographic area) for use of government lands by hydropower licensees.

The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission proposes to approve Reliability Standard PRC-012-2 (Remedial Action Schemes) submitted by the North American Electric Reliability Corporation. The purpose of proposed Reliability Standard PRC-012-2 is to ensure that remedial action schemes do not introduce unintentional or unacceptable reliability risks to the bulk electric system.

The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (Commission) is proposing to revise its regulations to require that each regional transmission organization (RTO) and independent system operator (ISO) that currently allocates the costs of real-time uplift due to deviations should allocate such real-time uplift costs only to those market participants whose transactions are reasonably expected to have caused the real-time uplift costs. The Commission also proposes to revise its regulations to enhance transparency by requiring that each RTO/ISO post uplift costs paid (dollars) and operator-initiated commitments (megawatts) on its Web site; and define in its tariff its transmission constraint penalty factors, as well as the circumstances under which those penalty factors can set locational marginal prices, and any procedure for changing those factors.

The Commission issues this policy statement to clarify its precedent and provide guidance on the ability of electric storage resources to provide services at and seek to recover their costs through both cost-based and market-based rates concurrently. We are mindful that, by providing electric storage resources the opportunity to receive cost-based rate recovery concurrently with other revenue from market-based services ( e.g., through organized wholesale electric markets), there can be implementation details that may need to be addressed, including protections against the potential for double-recovery of costs from cost-based ratepayers, adverse market impacts, and regional transmission organization (RTO)/independent system operator (ISO) independence from market participants. The Commission provides guidance in this policy statement as to how electric storage resources seeking to receive cost-based rate recovery for certain services (such as transmission or grid support services or to address other needs identified by an RTO/ISO) while also receiving market-based revenues for providing separate market-based rate services could address these concerns and also clarifies some past precedent on these issues.

The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (Commission) is issuing a final rule to amend its regulations governing the maximum civil monetary penalties assessable for violations of statutes, rules, and orders within the Commission's jurisdiction. The Federal Civil Penalties Inflation Adjustment Act of 1990, as amended most recently by the Federal Civil Penalties Inflation Adjustment Act Improvements Act of 2015, requires the Commission to issue this final rule.

The Delaware River Basin Commission published a document in the Federal Register on December 29, 2016 (81 FR 95860), in relevant part amending the Rules of Practice and Procedure. The document failed to include rule text approved by the Commission relating to the annual monitoring and coordination fee. This document corrects the final regulations by incorporating the approved language. In addition, this document corrects the preamble to clarify that in adopting the final rule, the Commission acted by Resolution No. 2016-9, not 2016-8.

The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (Commission) is proposing to revise its regulations and the pro forma Large Generator Interconnection Procedures and pro forma Large Generator Interconnection Agreement. The Commission proposes reforms designed to improve certainty, promote more informed interconnection, and enhance interconnection processes. The proposed reforms are intended to ensure that the generator interconnection process is just and reasonable and not unduly discriminatory or preferential.

This document contains corrections to the final rule (RM16-15-000, RM15-25-001) which published in the Federal Register on Wednesday, December 21, 2016 (81 FR 93732). The final rule amended the Commission's regulations to implement provisions of the Fixing America's Surface Transportation Act that pertain to the designation, protection and sharing of Critical Electric Infrastructure Information.

The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission is proposing to revise its regulations to require that each regional transmission organization and independent system operator incorporate market rules that meet certain requirements when pricing fast-start resources. These reforms should lead to prices that more transparently reflect the marginal cost of serving load, which will reduce uplift costs and thereby improve price signals to support efficient investments.

The Commission amends the Rules of Practice and Procedure and the Basin Regulations—Water Supply Charges, respectively, to adopt a new project review fee structure and provide for automatic inflation adjustments. These changes are also incorporated into the Commission's Comprehensive Plan.

The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (Commission) amends its regulations to implement provisions of the Fixing America's Surface Transportation Act that pertain to the designation, protection and sharing of Critical Electric Infrastructure Information. Additionally, the Commission amends its regulations addressing Critical Energy Infrastructure Information.

The Tennessee Valley Authority is amending its regulations which contain TVA's procedures for the Privacy Act. These amendments reflect changes in position titles and addresses; conform references to Privacy Act systems of records to the most current publication of TVA's Privacy Act Systems Notices in the Federal Register ; and make other editorial changes.

The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission is revising its regulations to address incremental energy offer caps. We require that each regional transmission organization (RTO) and independent system operator (ISO): Cap each resource's incremental energy offer at the higher of $1,000/megawatt-hour (MWh) or that resource's verified cost-based incremental energy offer; and cap verified cost-based incremental energy offers at $2,000/MWh when calculating locational marginal prices (LMP). Further, we clarify that the verification process for cost-based incremental offers above $1,000/MWh should ensure that a resource's cost-based incremental energy offer reasonably reflects that resource's actual or expected costs. This Final Rule will improve price formation by reducing the likelihood that offer caps will suppress LMPs below the marginal cost of production, while compensating resources for the costs they incur to serve load, by enabling RTOs/ISOs to dispatch the most efficient set of resources when short-run marginal costs exceed $1,000/MWh, by encouraging resources to offer supply to the market when it is most needed, and by reducing the potential for seams issues.

On June 30, 2016, President Obama signed the Freedom of Information Act Improvement Act of 2016. The Act requires agencies to revise their regulations within 180 days to account for the new statutory mandates. After undertaking a review of Commission regulations in accordance with Section 3 of the Act, the Commission is revising its FOIA regulations to incorporate the statutory mandates. Additionally, this rule updates the delegation regulations with respect to determinations made by the General Counsel in response to FOIA administrative appeals.

The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (Commission) is proposing to amend its regulations under the Federal Power Act (FPA) to remove barriers to the participation of electric storage resources and distributed energy resource aggregations in the capacity, energy, and ancillary service markets operated by regional transmission organizations (RTO) and independent system operators (ISO) (organized wholesale electric markets).

The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (Commission) is withdrawing a notice of proposed rulemaking, which proposed to amend its regulations pursuant to the Federal Power Act to grant blanket authorizations to acquire 10 percent or more, but less than 20 percent of the outstanding voting securities of a public utility or holding company and amend the definitions of “affiliate” in the Commission's regulations. The Commission is also terminating a proceeding on the Electric Power Supply Association's petition requesting guidance.

The Commission seeks comment regarding potential modifications to its policies for evaluating oil pipeline indexed rate changes. The Commission also seeks comment regarding potential changes to FERC Form No. 6, page 700. The Commission invites all interested persons to submit comments in response to the proposals.

In this document, pursuant to sections 205 and 220 of the Federal Power Act (FPA), the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (Commission) seeks comments on proposed revisions and clarifications of Electric Quarterly Report (EQR) reporting requirements and corresponding updates to the EQR Data Dictionary. In particular, this document proposes to: Require transmission providers to report ancillary services transaction data, to require filers to submit in the EQR certain tariff-related information that they submit in the e-Tariff system, and to require filers to submit time zone information in connection with transmission capacity reassignment transactions. This document also proposes to clarify how filers should report booked out transactions and seeks comments on issues relating to booked out transactions.

The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (Commission) approves Reliability Standard TPL-007-1 (Transmission System Planned Performance for Geomagnetic Disturbance Events). The North American Electric Reliability Corporation (NERC), the Commission-certified Electric Reliability Organization, submitted Reliability Standard TPL-007-1 for Commission approval in response to a Commission directive in Order No. 779. Reliability Standard TPL-007-1 establishes requirements for certain registered entities to assess the vulnerability of their transmission systems to geomagnetic disturbance events (GMDs), which occur when the sun ejects charged particles that interact with and cause changes in the earth's magnetic fields. Applicable entities that do not meet certain performance requirements, based on the results of their vulnerability assessments, must develop a plan to achieve the performance requirements. In addition, the Commission directs NERC to develop modifications to Reliability Standard TPL-007-1: To modify the benchmark GMD event definition set forth in Attachment 1 of Reliability Standard TPL-007-1, as it pertains to the required GMD Vulnerability Assessments and transformer thermal impact assessments, so that the definition is not based solely on spatially-averaged data; to require the collection of necessary geomagnetically induced current monitoring and magnetometer data and to make such data publicly available; and to include a one-year deadline for the development of corrective action plans and two and four-year deadlines to complete mitigation actions involving non-hardware and hardware mitigation, respectively. The Commission also directs NERC to submit a work plan and, subsequently, one or more informational filings that address specific GMD-related research areas.

The Commission proposes to approve Reliability Standards BAL-005-1 (Balancing Authority Control) and FAC-001-3 (Facility Interconnection Requirements) submitted by the North American Electric Reliability Corporation.

This document contains proposed rules that would amend the regulations of the Susquehanna River Basin Commission (Commission) to clarify application requirements and standards for review of projects, amend the rules dealing with the mitigation of consumptive uses, add a subpart to provide for registration of grandfathered projects, and revise requirements dealing with hearings and enforcement actions. These rules are designed to enhance the Commission's existing authorities to manage the water resources of the basin and add regulatory clarity.

The Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA) is issuing guidance stating that certain structures, while obstructions across, along, or in certain tributaries of the Tennessee River, do not need a Section 26a permit from TVA, because they have an indiscernible effect on navigation, flood control or public lands or reservations.

This final rule amends the regulations of the Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA) for the protection of archaeological resources by providing for the issuance of petty offense citations for violations of the Archaeological Resources Protection Act (ARPA) and the Antiquities Act of 1906 (AA). Amending the regulations such that TVA law enforcement agents are authorized to issue citations will help prevent loss and destruction of archaeological resources resulting from unlawful excavations and pillage.

The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (Commission) proposes to revise its regulations to collect certain data for analytics and surveillance purposes from market-based rate (MBR) sellers and entities trading virtual products or holding financial transmission rights and to change certain aspects of the substance and format of information submitted for MBR purposes. The revisions proposed herein include new requirements for those entities to report certain information about their legal and financial connections to other entities to assist the Commission in its analytics and surveillance efforts. The Commission previously proposed to require certain market participants in the Commission-jurisdictional organized wholesale electric markets to file similar information about their financial and legal connections in the Collection of Connected Entity Data from Regional Transmission Organizations and Independent System Operators Notice of Proposed Rulemaking issued in Docket No. RM15-23-000 (Connected Entity NOPR). However, as described herein, this proposal presents substantial revisions from what the Commission proposed in the Connected Entity NOPR, including, among other things: A different set of filers; a reworked and substantially narrowed definition of Connected Entity; and a different submission process. With respect to the MBR program, the proposals include: Adopting certain changes to reduce and clarify the scope of ownership information that MBR sellers must provide, similar to the notice of proposed rulemaking issued in Docket No. RM16-3-000 (Ownership NOPR); reducing the information required in asset appendices; and collecting currently-required MBR information and certain new information in a consolidated and streamlined manner. The Commission proposes all of these changes in order to eliminate duplication, ease compliance burdens, modernize its data collections, and render information collected through its programs usable and accessible for the Commission and its staff. In furtherance of this effort, in orders being issued concurrently with the instant NOPR, the Commission withdraws the Connected Entity NOPR issued in Docket No. RM15-23-000 and the Ownership NOPR issued in Docket No. RM16-3-000. 1 The Commission also proposes to eliminate the requirement that MBR sellers submit corporate organizational charts adopted in Order No. 816 in Docket No. RM14-14-000. 1   Collection of Connected Entity Data from Regional Transmission Organizations and Independent System Operators, 156 FERC ¶ 61,046 (2016); Ownership Information in Market-Based Rate Filings, 156 FERC ¶ 61,047 (2016).