Dive Brief:

• Eleven major energy industry groups on Friday asked the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission for a 30-day extension on their filing deadline in the agency's proceeding on grid resilience, now set for April 9. 
• Groups representing renewable energy, natural gas and independent generators, among others, said they need more time to respond to resilience plans filed by regional grid operators, as well prepare for two FERC technical conferences this spring and the expected filing of major capacity market reforms in PJM.
• The associations requested FERC take action on their request by March 21, and "in so doing, make a reduction in the comment period for the filing of answers to this motion to reflect this request for expedited treatment."

Dive Insight:

The deadline for market participant filings in FERC's resilience docket comes at an "unusually busy time" at the commission, energy industry groups argued in a Friday filing. 

On top of the resilience filing, the associations are also preparing for two technical conferences next month — one on generation interconnection on April 3-4, and another on distributed resource aggregations in wholesale markets, set for April 10-11. 

Additionally, the groups noted that the PJM Interconnection is likely to file a set of competing capacity market reforms this month that many market participants oppose. 

"The 30-day extension requested by the Energy Industry Associations will help ensure that a robust record is developed on the resilience issues identified by the Commission in this docket," the groups wrote.

The request comes as part of FERC's grid resilience proceeding, set up when federal regulators rejected a coal and nuclear subsidy proposal from the Department of Energy in January. FERC gave grid operators 60 days to outline their resilience plans, filed March 9, after which market participants have 30 days to respond under the original schedule. 

The request was filed by representatives from Advanced Energy Economy, the American Council on Renewable Energy, the American Petroleum Institute, the American Wind Energy Association, the American Public Power Association, the Electric Power Supply Association, the Electricity Consumers Resource Council, the Interstate Natural Gas Association of America, the Independent Petroleum Association of America, the Natural Gas Supply Association and the Solar Energy Industries Association. 

The renewable and natural gas groups often oppose each other in energy policy discussions, but have banded together in recent months to oppose the DOE subsidy plan and attempt to shape market reforms in the resilience docket. Some market observers are worried those reforms, along with ongoing pricing changes at regional grid operators, could amount to a low-profile bailout of generators targeted by the DOE proposal. PJM's resilience comments included pricing proposals that piqued some of those concerns.