Dive Brief:
- A coalition of the nation's electric utilities told a federal appeals court that the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission's (FERC) Order 1000 on allocating the cost of new transmission amounts to an unprecedented restructuring of the nation's power grid.
- The U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit is considering multiple challenges to the landmark FERC order on regional transmission planning.
- The coalition said FERC does not have the authority to direct utilities to fund transmission developers "from whom they do not take service."
Dive Insight:
"FERC's view that a utility-customer relationship is unnecessary because the entire electric grid can be treated as 'a single machine,' providing 'one service,' the costs for which can be spread grid-wide, has no precedent," the coalition's brief said.
"FERC's requirement to allocate costs across the interstate grid based on undefined 'benefits' (which do not convey any right to use the facilities) further conflicts with public utilities' rights to set their rates in the first instance" under the Federal Power Act, the brief said.