The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission on Thursday rejected a complaint by CPower Energy Management that argued the PJM Interconnection’s rules are a “Catch-22” that effectively block large-scale residential demand response aggregation, potentially increasing energy and capacity prices.
Utilities don’t give curtailment service providers, or CSPs, needed information from their advanced metering infrastructure systems that is required for aggregations of residential demand response customers to take part in PJM’s markets, CPower said in a complaint filed a year ago. At the same time, PJM’s rules bar CSPs from using approved statistical sampling rules for DR residential participation in the grid operator’s energy and capacity markets if they have smart meters, according to the complaint.
CPower failed to provide evidence that it cannot obtain the required meter data, including the extent of the alleged problem in PJM, FERC said.
FERC said if CPower, PJM or others offer evidence that electric utilities are unwilling or unable to provide CSPs with the AMI data required by PJM’s tariff, the agency would consider it.
FERC noted that states have jurisdiction over issues related to third-party access of certain utility data and the deployment of advanced metering infrastructure.
In a concurrence, new FERC Commissioner Judy Chang said the complaint comes amid a supply constraint in PJM and rising power prices.
“A better record regarding data access barriers for demand-side resources might warrant further action by the commission,” Chang said. “I encourage PJM to continue to monitor this issue to determine whether its existing rules might unnecessarily restrict access to its markets, thereby leaving potential cost-reducing measures unexplored.”
CPower said it is disappointed by FERC’s decision. “Residential resources are mostly sidelined [from PJM’s markets] because of the data access problem,” Ken Schisler, senior vice president of law and policy for CPower, said in a statement. “This is a problem that will continue until either PJM, the state commissions or FERC acts to address it.”
Here are four other takeaways from the meeting.
FERC may revise how it reviews gas projects. In the wake of recent court decisions, FERC may revise the way it reviews natural gas pipeline and liquefied natural gas projects, according to FERC Chairman Willie Phillips.
In late July and early August, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit vacated FERC’s approval of a gas pipeline project built by a Williams Co. subsidiary and two LNG projects in Texas.
“This is clearly a shift in the legal landscape,” Phillips said during a media briefing. “This is a complete change.”
The court decisions offer an opportunity for FERC to revisit its 25-year-old policies on the criteria it uses when reviewing proposed gas infrastructure, Phillips said. FERC in 2022 adopted new gas review policies, including for how it would assess a project's contribution to greenhouse gas emissions, but quickly withdrew them.
However, Phillips said Thursday that FERC’s three new commissioners need time to get up to speed on issues facing the agency. “I've already begun conversations talking about this, [grid] interconnection, all the other priorities that we know that we have to deal with,” he said. “This is something that is top of mind, and we will continue to work in a way that's bipartisan and that will lead us to more legally durable decisions.”
The court erred in its pipeline decision, according to Phillips. “The court did not properly consider how truly disruptive their decision would be to the affordability and reliability of natural gas services to the customers who desperately need it this winter,” he said.
First-ever consultation with tribes on electric market issues. FERC will consult with tribes about whether the commission should conduct a rulemaking to ease certain generation interconnection requirements for “tribal energy development organizations.”
The consultation via two meetings to be held in October and November are in response to a petition from the Alliance for Tribal Clean Energy. The group asked FERC to allow tribal energy organizations to be able to defer paying commercial readiness deposits for generator interconnection requests until large generator interconnection agreements are executed. They also want to be exempt from certain generator interconnection request withdrawal penalties.
The meetings will mark the first time that the agency has consulted with tribes on an electric markets issue, according to Phillips.
“Improving the commission's tribal engagement and consultation practices is one of my top priorities and a commitment that is reflected in our equity action plan,” Phillips said during the open meeting.
Under FERC's updated equity action plan, the agency is committed to increasing its staff's knowledge of treaty law, of the history of interactions between the federal government and tribal governments, and of the methods for engaging with tribal governments, Phillips said, noting that next week the agency is holding staff training on those issues.
FERC proposes bolstering security for cyber supply chain. The agency issued a proposed rule that directs the North American Electric Reliability Corp. to require responsible entities such as transmission and power plant owners to identify supply chain risks to their grid-related cybersecurity systems at specific time intervals, among other measures. The rule would also direct NERC to extend its supply chain standards to include “protected cyber assets,” which, according to NERC, are assets connected using a routable protocol within or on an electronic security perimeter that is not part of the highest impact bulk electric cyber system within the same electronic security perimeter.
FERC also approved a reliability standard that requires internal network security monitoring inside an entity’s electronic security perimeter.
FERC faces anti-fossil fuel protest. Beyond Extreme Energy kicked off a “Fall of FERC” protest by blocking the agency’s driveway on Thursday, according to the group. Eight activists in rocking chairs blocked FERC staff and commissioners from getting into the agency’s parking garage for an hour and a half without any arrests, the group said in a Facebook post.
The group said it held a rally in front of FERC as speakers from the Gulf Coast and Texas spoke about their experience of being “betrayed by FERC.”
Protesters interrupted FERC’s open meeting about 15 times. Beyond Extreme Energy has protested FERC’s approval of gas infrastructure since at least 2017.
Editor’s note: This story was updated with a comment from CPower.
