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S&P Global: Outlook 2019: Big Year for power, natgas players under FERC

Posted by Sean Sullivan and Jasmin Melvin on Jan 2, 2019

This piece from S&P Global addresses what is on the docket so for the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) in 2019 and the overarching impact this will have on U.S. power and natural gas sectors. The AEE perspective is given by Jeff Dennis, the General Counsel for Regulatory Affairs. See excerpts below and the entire S&P Global story here: 

The U.S. power and natural gas sectors could face a tumultuous 2019 as a new lineup at the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission works through a wide-ranging, politically charged agenda that involves competitive wholesale power markets, taxes, transportation rates and infrastructure permitting…

Among the first issues to be decided at the commission in 2019 will be PJM Interconnection's capacity market redesign, intended to blunt the price-suppressive effects of increasing levels of state-subsidized generation in the region. (FERC dockets EL16-49, ER18-1314, EL18-178) …

Jeff Dennis, Advanced Energy Economy's general counsel for regulatory affairs and a former FERC official, said the PJM proceeding is one of the most challenging he has seen in terms of finding a path forward that satisfies the interests of varied parties and avoids continued turmoil in the market. 

Renewable energy credits and the renewable portfolio standards that create them "don't have a demonstrable impact on the capacity market and on offers into the capacity market," Dennis said. 

That line of thinking would require FERC to "pull back on some of the findings" it made in its split decision to declare PJM's capacity market unjust and unreasonable, Dennis said. However, "right now there doesn't appear to be three votes to maintain the approach the commission took in that order."

See the complete S&P Global story here.

Topics: United In The News