Demand Management/Smart Grid

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Covington's team including a former Commissioner at Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC), a senior FERC electricity policy staff member, a former General Counsel of Constellation Energy, and a former Assistant General Counsel at the Commodity Futures Trading Commission - represents a wide range of clients with respect to the smart grid, grid access, net metering, demand response, grid interconnection, and investment in transmission and distribution technologies and resources.

Our attorneys are sought out and retained for their comprehensive and first-hand knowledge of the legal complexities involving the efficient distribution and allocation of power. The firm’s data privacy practice also frequently provides counsel on privacy issues that arise from expanded deployment of “smart grid” technologies.

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FERC Requests More Comments on Grid Service Proposal

In November 2016, FERC issued a Notice of Proposed Rulemaking (NOPR) that would require new generating facilities to install and operate equipment that provides primary frequency response service to the grid. Based on some of the comments received on the NOPR, FERC issued a request for supplemental comments. The reliable operation of the alternating ...

FERC IS BACK AND FACES A FULL PLATE OF ELECTRICITY ISSUES (Volume 3)

This is the third and final of three posts on this blog providing short summaries of the generic electricity policy initiatives already teed up and awaiting possible action by the newly-constituted FERC. Together, these three posts describe initiatives that address fundamental market and resource issues spanning a broad range of FERC’s electricity authorities. ...

FERC IS BACK AND FACES A FULL PLATE OF ELECTRICITY ISSUES (Volume 2)

This is the second post of three on this blog providing short summaries of the generic electricity policy initiatives already teed up and awaiting possible action by the newly-constituted FERC. Together, these three posts describe initiatives that address fundamental market and resource issues spanning a broad range of FERC’s electricity authorities. Today’s ...

FERC IS BACK AND FACES A FULL PLATE OF ELECTRICITY ISSUES (Volume 1)

With two new Commissioners confirmed by the Senate and sworn in, FERC’s seven-month period without a quorum is over and it can get back to business. And with another two nominations now before the Senate with a hearing scheduled for September 7, the agency should be at full strength within the next few months and...… Continue Reading

Blockchain Goes Solar

A recent New York Times article reported on an early-stage, solar energy microgrid being formed in Brooklyn, called the Brooklyn Microgrid, that relies on blockchain technology, the innovative database technology used by cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin that promises to transform industries as diverse as financial services, health care, retail, and manufacturing. ...

NY ISO Outlines Steps For Integrating Distributed Resources

The NY Independent System Operator recently issued a plan for addressing the nuts-and-bolts issues associated with integrating distributed energy resources (DERs) into the wholesale electricity market. The NYISO says its Distributed Energy Resources Roadmap for New York’s Wholesale Electricity Markets is “the first step in building (the) grid of the future” and ...

FERC Clarifies Cost Recovery Flexibility for Electric Storage Resources

As part of an ongoing effort to address issues raised by, and encourage the entry of, distributed energy resources, the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) last week issued a Policy Statement clarifying the flexibility electric storage resources have regarding rate designs to recover their costs. FERC earlier proposed rules to remove barriers to the ...

Trump Executive Order Labels “Improving the U.S. Electric Grid” as a “High Priority Infrastructure Project”

Moving forward, in part, on a campaign promise to adopt an infrastructure plan to “transform America’s crumbling infrastructure,” today President Trump issued an Executive Order titled “Expediting Environmental Reviews and Approvals for High Priority Infrastructure Projects.” Notably, the order states: it is the policy of the executive branch to streamline and ...

Transforming the Nation’s Electricity System: Survivable Elements of Obama’s Policy Roadmap for the Trump Administration

Official publications of the Trump campaign and transition team propose significant changes in energy policies. The principal focus of the proposed policy changes addresses energy independence and job creation through greater production of fossil fuel resources. But apart from pronouncements to “scrap … the Clean Power Plan” there is little to glean from the ...

FERC Proposes Requiring New Generators to Provide A Grid Support Service

One factor driving the grid of the future is the change in the nation’s electric generator resource mix, such as the retirement of traditional baseload generation and an increasing proportion of variable energy resources, such as wind and solar. This evolution has raised concern that the capability to provide “primary frequency response,” a critical grid...… ...

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