I came across an interesting FERC filing the other day. It's about something called "unreserved use," which is kind of a geeky, complicated subject, but the real issue here seems to be FERC's deference to one of its regional transmission operator pets, and a contradiction about whether specific information should be public or privileged.
Now where else has FERC had issues with that lately?
Unreserved use is failing to reserve transmission before utilizing it, so planners cannot account for the usage until they see it in real time, some call it "leaning on the system." In most tariffs, a company gets a 200% penalty for the extra stuff it puts on the system. FERC has asked that RTOs annually account for those penalties. FERC also wants the RTO to distribute the penalty amounts to non-offending customers, so it's a two-pronged incentive to follow the rules.
In FERCenese, here's how it's supposed to work:
Now where else has FERC had issues with that lately?
Unreserved use is failing to reserve transmission before utilizing it, so planners cannot account for the usage until they see it in real time, some call it "leaning on the system." In most tariffs, a company gets a 200% penalty for the extra stuff it puts on the system. FERC has asked that RTOs annually account for those penalties. FERC also wants the RTO to distribute the penalty amounts to non-offending customers, so it's a two-pronged incentive to follow the rules.
In FERCenese, here's how it's supposed to work:
In Order No. 890, the Commission required each transmission provider to report its operational penalty assessments and distributions in an annual informational filing. The annual filing must contain the following information: (1) a summary of penalty revenue credits by transmission customer; (2) total penalty revenues collected from affiliates; (3) total penalty revenues collected from non-affiliates; (4) a description of the costs incurred as a result of the offending behavior; and (5) a summary of the portion of the unreserved penalty revenue retained by the transmission provider. Each transmission provider must report on its penalty assessments and distributions in an annual compliance report submitted on or before the deadline for submitting its FERC Form No. 1.
Sounds rather routine, right? Except that some RTOs make their compliance filing as a public filing, but MISO has decided that its compliance filing is privileged because:
MISO contends that this type of information could be used by other "MISO market participants to discern trading patterns, and even trading strategies, adopted by other MISO market participants.
Well, yee-haw, cowboys! SPP files this information publicly! Cue the crooked traders.... And PJM has NEVER even made a compliance filing. FERC has so many clear rules it doesn't try to enforce, yet sticks its nose into the murky but headline grabbing world of supposed market manipulation where it doesn't even know its own rules.
Just what IS it about MISO's unreserved use filing that can't stand public scrutiny, anyhow? Something doesn't add up here...
Just what IS it about MISO's unreserved use filing that can't stand public scrutiny, anyhow? Something doesn't add up here...
RSS Feed