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EPSA Seeks Federal Court Review Of FERC's Demand Response Final Rules

WASHINGTON, D.C. - The Electric Power Supply Association (EPSA) today filed a petition for review in the United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit seeking review of the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission's ("FERC") final rules on Demand Response Compensation in Organized Wholesale Energy Markets. The petition covers both Order 745 entered by FERC on March 15, 2011, and Order 745-A entered by FERC on December 15, 2011.

EPSA President and CEO John E. Shelk commented on today's court filing:

"FERC's controversial demand response compensation orders cry out for a thorough review by the Court. EPSA has been clear from the start of this flawed rulemaking process that demand response is a resource with a legitimate place in competitive wholesale energy markets. That said the uniform preferential compensation awarded to certain demand response resources under FERC's orders will undermine the very wholesale markets FERC is supposed to ensure are properly regulated and function well.

As a threshold matter, at issue is whether FERC has legal jurisdiction over demand response compensation. EPSA was joined by several other national trade associations in arguing before FERC that it does not. More fundamentally, FERC ignored or did not adequately respond to the overwhelming evidence in the record that the excessive compensation paid to demand response providers under these orders is contrary to the Federal Power Act and simply not justified by sound economics.

At a time when the nation's power sector faces the challenges and opportunities of significant upcoming replacement, retirement, repowering and retrofitting of generation assets, it is more critical than ever that market price signals be accurate and that federal regulators not tilt the playing field as FERC has done in these orders."

[Editor's Note: Todays filing is procedural. Briefs on substantive issues will be filed at a later date determined by the Court.]

CONTACT: JOHN SHELK
(202) 349-0154or 703-472-8660

EPSA is the national trade association representing competitive power suppliers, including generators and marketers. These suppliers, who account for nearly 40 percent of the installed generating capacity in the United States, provide reliable and competitively priced electricity from environmentally responsible facilities serving global power markets. EPSA seeks to bring the benefits of competition to all power customers.