FERC Finalizes Rule Encouraging Integration of Renewable Energy

The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) has issued a rule aimed at integrating variable energy resources (VER or VERs), such as wind and solar power, into the electric grid.

The final rule adopted two reforms from FERC’s November 2010 proposal:

• Grid operators must offer customers the option of transmission scheduling in 15-minute increments, rather than today’s 30-minute or one-hour increments. This is designed to allow renewable power generators to better match actual production with scheduled production, reducing energy imbalance charges paid to cover shortfalls when generation output changes within the hour.
• Generators using variable energy resources must provide transmission owners with meteorological and forced outage data to support their power production forecasts.

FERC declined to adopt the third proposal made in its Notice of Proposed Rulemaking, which would have added a new ancillary service rate schedule (Schedule 10 - Generator Regulation and Frequency Response Service) to the pro forma Open Access Transmission Tariff (OATT). FERC instead stated that it will continue to take a case-by-case approach in evaluating such generator regulation charges and provided guidance about the factors that should underlie a proposed generator regulation charge.

The Final Rule requires compliance within twelve months of the Rule’s effective date.

This post was authored by GLLF staff attorney Emily Kelchen.