FERC Filings
COMMENTS OF THE ELECTRIC POWER SUPPLY ASSOCIATION ON THE MEDIATION REPORT FOR THE SOUTHEAST RTO
FERC’s Continued Involvement
EPSA strongly supports FERC’s continued involvement in the development of one RTO for the Southeast to keep the momentum the Commission has created by mandating the mediation process. EPSA believes such continued involvement is critical to achieving RTO market operations in the Southeast as soon as possible. EPSA cannot overestimate the damage to market efficiency and consumer benefits that are resulting from continued delays to full wholesale competition, a problem that plagues the entire country. In some cases, existing practices are strategically blocking new generation from even interconnecting while in other cases, interconnection is permitted, but other rules hinder consumer access to the new lower cost supply. In both cases, consumers are denied lower prices. Consequently it is important that the Commission support its continued involvement now that the initial mediation process has concluded.
In order for the Commission to remain committed to progress it must be willing to commit to remaining involved in the SPG development process on a going-forward basis. Several issue areas are still likely to be the focus of significant debate and will require a collaborative process. Resolving these issues and the associated implementation details will be critical to the enduring success of the eventual SPG.
The Commission’s continued involvement is critical to the formation of a seamless power grid. Market participants can benefit from first-hand FERC input on previous rulings from other regions. This can help prevent any future SPG filings from attempting to establish rules, protocols, and plans that are contrary to Commission precedent. Moreover, continued Commission involvement would prevent disagreements between stakeholders on specific points from stalling the process, and potentially resulting in a deficient SPG filing. While the FERC may incur added costs of travel and staff time, well-developed and broadly supported filings that comply with FERC’s RTO policies will more than offset these costs.
The Commission’s presence in the collaborative process will prevent any future delay by providing ongoing dialogue between regulators and market participants. This will shortcut the time-consuming sequence of: (1) internal negotiations; (2) filings; (3) filing responses and, hopefully, obviate the need for going through the sequence repeatedly. A continued Commission presence will also help prevent parties from becoming polarized in their views during negotiations without feeling a need to compromise.
EPSA believes that future stakeholder meetings in the SPG development process will work best by involving two FERC staff representatives. To avoid ex-parte concerns, EPSA recognizes that any meeting attended by the Commission staff must be publicly noticed. These Commission staff representatives should be knowledgeable of the Southeast process and can serve as back-ups to each other. Thus, if a situation arises where one staff member cannot participate in a meeting, the alternate should be able to stand in as a proxy for the other Commission representative.
Staff involvement will give the Commission the ability to monitor the process during the post-mediation period. If questions arise during the post-mediation period, the staffers can supply on-the-spot answers or coordinate with senior staff in Washington to get answers to the parties quickly. The efficiency of this established feedback channel ensures that negotiations between parties do not bog down and hinder the completion of the overall process over a single issue. Moreover, the presence of Commission staff assists in maintaining a cooperative approach between the parties, as the mediation process evidenced.
Having Commission representatives in the field for the SPG process can prove valuable as a way for the FERC to continue to engage state public utility commissions and remain responsive to their concerns, as details about the ultimate organization get refined. The involvement of state commissions is integral to the success of more a competitive wholesale markets in the Southeast.