Power & Pipes

A LawFlash prepared by our energy team discusses likely results of the Texas power outages and blackouts during the recent winter storm, which include federal and state investigations into the outages, federal investigations into commodity and futures price spikes during the storm, force majeure inquiries, and demands for corrective actions to ensure future reliability of the grid system.

On February 17, Texas Governor Greg Abbott took the extraordinary measure of directing the Railroad Commission of Texas (RRC) to restrict out-of-state exports of natural gas produced in Texas through February 21. Noting the unprecedented extreme weather events facing the state, Governor Abbott’s directive seeks to “ensure[] that any natural gas currently in Texas is not sent outside of Texas,” unless it is first offered for sale to in-state power generators. Governor Abbott “mandate[d] that all sourced natural gas be made available for sale to local power generation opportunities before leaving the state of Texas.”

Read our recent LawFlash analyzing the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission’s (FERC’s) Order No. 2222, which directs wholesale electric market operators to facilitate the participation of distributed energy resource (DER) aggregators under one or more participation models.

As New York seeks a path to achieving its greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions goals, the New York Public Service Commission (NYPSC) recently approved an order authorizing New York’s electric utilities to spend up to $701 million to develop “make-ready” sites for electric vehicle (EV) supply equipment (EVSE) and related infrastructure (i.e., charging stations). The program is referred to as the “Make-Ready Program.”

New York and New Jersey have announced the largest offshore wind solicitations in the United States. The solicitations—2,500 megawatts (MW) by New York and 2,400 MW by New Jersey—would add nearly 5 gigawatts of offshore wind capacity.

FERC recently dismissed the New England Ratepayers Association’s petition for declaratory order requesting FERC to exert jurisdiction over certain net-metering transactions.

On July 10, the US Court of Appeals for the DC Circuit found that the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission was well within its rights to prevent states from prohibiting energy storage resources from participating in wholesale (i.e., sales for resale) energy markets. The court’s order is the latest judicial affirmation of FERC’s authority to regulate activities on wide portions of the electric grid, including facilities reserved to state regulators, if those activities affect wholesale rates.

The New Jersey Board of Public Utilities (BPU) has issued a straw proposal for electric vehicle (EV) infrastructure build out, to advance the statutory targets for the installation of EV chargers under a law signed earlier this year.

The US Department of Homeland Security’s Cybersecurity & Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) issued Version 3.0 of its guidance on April 17 on identifying essential critical infrastructure workers amid the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic.

Nevada became the sixth state to adopt an energy storage procurement goal on March 12. The Public Utilities Commission of Nevada (PUCN) adopted a regulation in Order No. 44671 that establishes biennial energy storage procurement goals of 100 MW by December 31, 2020, and increasing to 1 GW by 2030.