The House Energy and Commerce Committee’s Subcommittee on Energy on April 30 held a hearing on 14 bills related to grid reliability.
The overall themes of the hearing were similar to those in recent energy hearings, with committee members and witnesses agreeing on the necessity of new electric generation to meet the rapidly rising demand while ensuring affordable and reliable service. Republicans and Democrats were split, however, on how to achieve those goals.
Republicans focused on legislation to give the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission a greater role and authority to ensure reliability. They also highlighted two bills that aim to use “must consider” requirements under the Public Utilities Regulatory Policies Act (PURPA) section 111(d) to “encourage” states to take a greater role in protecting grid reliability.
Democrats focused on maintaining energy tax credits, federal support for energy infrastructure, and additional reforms to the interconnection queues to bring more generation resources online.
Representative Troy Balderson (R-OH) asked about the Reliable Power Act, which would give FERC new authority to review and request modifications to federal agency rules that would negatively affect bulk-power system reliability, and about encouraging dispatchable power in the RTOs, citing PJM’s Reliability Resource Initiative (RRI).
David Morenoff, Acting General Counsel, Federal Energy Regulatory Commission, said if additional authority is granted, FERC will implement it.
However, FERC does not currently have the depth of resources to do the extent of the analysis that might be required, so would lean on the North American Electric Reliability Corporation (NERC). FERC is reviewing queue proposals to prioritize dispatchable power and, recognizing regional challenges, approved PJM’s RRI filing.
APPA supports the Reliable Power Act
APPA on April 30 sent a letter in support of the Reliable Power Act, which is in currently in draft form, to key members of the subcommittee and the House Energy and Commerce Committee.
“APPA supports efforts in Congress to provide FERC with a formal role in determining the potential reliability impact of federal regulations,” APPA said.
“Further, APPA believes that, should FERC determine a proposed regulation would adversely impact the reliable operation of the bulk-power system, the issuing agency should be required to make necessary modifications,” wrote Desmarie Waterhouse, Senior Vice President, Advocacy and Communications & General Counsel at APPA.
“Given the critical responsibility of FERC to assist electric customers in obtaining reliable, safe, secure, and economically efficient energy services at a reasonable cost, APPA believes FERC must have the appropriate authority to determine and mitigate significant reliability impacts of major regulations,” the letter said.
“This would allow electric utilities, including public power utilities, to comply with such regulations without adversely affecting regional or local electric system reliability.”
APPA believes it appropriate for NERC, “which has years of experience conducting long-term reliability assessments, to initially assess whether the bulk-power system is at risk of being unable to supply future energy demands before FERC can exercise authority to review regulations.”
APPA is encouraging the committee “to consider providing NERC with more statutory flexibility in conducting the long-term reliability assessment to ensure the solutions proposed by the Reliable Power Act are durable and NERC can continue to improve its techniques, analysis, and solutions as the needs of the grid evolve.”
