FERC Grants Complaints Based On Affiliate Abuse

In a pair of almost-identical complaints brought by a coalition of wholesale power generators led by the Electric Power Supply Association (Complainants), the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission's (Commission) affiliate abuse rules were recently put to the test. Electric Power Supply Association v. FirstEnergy Solutions Corp., 155 FERC ¶ 61,101 (2016); Electric Power Supply Association v. AEP Generation Resources, Inc., 155 FERC ¶ 61,102 (2016). Each complaint alleged misconduct by two affiliated companies, one a franchised public utility, and the other a market-regulated power sales entity (generator). In each case, the utility and the generator had entered into a power purchase agreement (PPA), under which the utility had agreed to purchase the generators' output. The PPA provided for the output to be resold by the utility into the PJM Interconnection, LLC energy market, rather than being used to supply the utility's retail customers.