The court reaffirms that when reviewing a utility's filing
under Section 205, FERC may not "transform the proposal into
an entirely new rate."
On July 7, the US Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia
Circuit issued its
opinion in NRG Power v. FERC,[1] vacating
in part and remanding a May 2013 order by the Federal Energy
Regulatory Commission (FERC)[2] that had accepted PJM
Interconnection, L.L.C.'s (PJM's) revisions to the Minimum
Offer Price Rule (MOPR) in the PJM electricity capacity market
subject to PJM's acceptance of certain modifications. The court
held that in directing the modifications to the PJM proposal, FERC
created "a new rate scheme that was significantly different
from [both PJM's proposed and existing rate designs],"
thereby exceeding FERC's authority under Section 205 of the
Federal Power Act (FPA). The court also held that PJM's consent
to FERC's modifications did not cure FERC's regulatory
overreach because utility customers did not
