As we posted in June, President Obama’s Better Buildings Initiative updated tax incentives aimed to encourage retrofitting buildings to reduce energy bills. Although considered the “low-hanging fruit” of carbon reduction, financing of commercial building retrofits for energy efficiency has largely remained in the realm of public subsidies. Opening the floodgates of private financing could expand [...]
Archive for the ‘Reliability Standards’ Category
19 Jul
Western Electricity Coordinating Council Slapped with (only?) $350,000 Civil Penalty for Alleged Violations of Reliability Standards
As reported, summarized, and analyzed by law firm Hogan Lovells in a recent Alert, FERC earlier this month issued an Order that concluded an investigation of Pacific Northwest Security Coordinator (PNSC), the predecessor of Western Electricity Coordinating Council (WECC). The investigation was launched after a “disturbance” that occurred in 2008 (a short circuit on a [...]
2 Jun
Power Outage at FERC Headquarters
The headline says it all, really, and to try and make a clever joke out of it would be perhaps cruel, but more importantly, beyond my comedic capacity. Starting Tuesday, May 31st, FERC and several other buildings in DC found themselves without power. FERC, who alerted visitors to their website of the outage with a [...]
24 Jan
FERC Issues Study of Frequency Response Metrics and Variable Renewable Generation
Late last week FERC announced the release of a FERC-initiated, FERC-funded, and Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory-conducted study that develops “an objective methodology to evaluate the reliability impacts of varying resource mixes including increased amounts of renewable resources.” The study, “Use of Frequency Response Metrics to Assess the Planning and Operating Requirements for Reliable Integration of [...]
17 Jan
Reliability Standards: Are FERC and NERC Cracking the Enforcement Whip?
Last month’s Briefing from Winston & Strawn suggests that NERC and FERC are casting an ever-widening net of enforcement over renewable energy developers and other generators subject to reliability standards. In addition to expanding the scope of transmission-related reliability standards to cover renewable energy sources, FERC has also “confirmed that it is devoting more resources [...]
