- In a ruling that could ignite a jurisdictional showdown between Virginia and federal regulators, the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) on April 1, 2003, conditionally approved a request by American Electric Power Co., Inc. (AEP) and Commonwealth Edison Co. (ComEd) to transfer control of their respective FERC-jurisdictional transmission facilities to PJM Interconnection, LLC (PJM). PJM is a large Regional Transmission Organization whose service area encompasses a substantial portion of the Northeast. The jurisdictional conflict arises because earlier this year, Virginia enacted legislation (HB 2453) that forbids Virginia utilities from ceding control of their transmission lines to regional transmission entities (RTEs) before July 1, 2004, and requires a demonstration to the Virginia State Corporate Commission (VaSCC) that such a transfer would be in the public interest. One of AEP's subsidiaries, Appalachian Power Company, operates in Southwest Virginia and is caught in the middle of the jurisdictional dispute. In a separate proceeding (PUE-2000-00550), the VaSCC cautioned that it could not decide whether to authorize AEP to join PJM until FERC has issued its Standard Market Design (SMD) rulemaking and the VaSCC has evaluated the impact of that rule on Virginia electricity consumers.
AEP made a compliance filing at the VaSCC on April 15. AEP then filed at FERC a request for rehearing of FERC's April 1, 2003 order, seeking clarification of whether FERC intended to require AEP to transfer its transmission facilities without regard for the Virginia state proceedings. If so, AEP asked that FERC either remove that requirement or expressly hold that the state proceedings, and the Virginia legislation imposing conditions on the transfer of the transmission facilities to an RTE, are preempted by federal law. While the jurisdictional question is before FERC, the issue may also be addressed by the United States Congress in pending energy legislation. - Based on recommendations contained in the March 26 FERC Staff Report on Price Manipulation in Western Markets (see April 2003 What's Happening at FERC), FERC directed 11 companies to show that they have corrected procedures for reporting natural gas price data. . FERC intends that its order shall help ensure that firms publishing price indices receive complete and accurate information from the companies. The respondent companies must show that they have corrected their internal processes for reporting trading data or that they no longer sell natural gas at wholesale. The respondent companies are: American Electric Power, Aquila Marketing Service, Coral Energy Resources, CMS Marketing Services & Trading, Dynegy, Duke Energy Trading and Marketing, El Paso Merchant Energy, Mirant Americas Energy Marketing, Reliant Resources, Sempra Energy Trading, and Williams Energy Marketing & Trading.
What's Happening At FERC
This article was edited and reviewed by FindLaw Attorney Writers | Last reviewed March 26, 2008
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