Energy regulation & Policy News

As federal climate action faces growing uncertainty, states and local governments have become the front lines of climate leadership. An Informa PLC company.

Ms. Wheelock received her Bachelors Degree in Political Science from Binghamton University and received her Juris Doctorate and Masters in Environmental Law and Policy from Vermont Law School. She began her career working for the New York Public Interest Research Group (NYPIRG) where she fought for the rights of consumers across the state. And how can coalitions build the public and political support needed to modernize the electric system?

• QFs produce power from sources other than fossil fuels, or they make power using a combination of fossil fuels with renewable energy sources.
• Ms. Wheelock went on to work for three different members of the New York State Assembly in both Albany and New York City focusing on a wide variety of issue areas including legislation to promote affordable housing, public access to insurance, nonprofit reform, and environmental protection.
• As federal climate action faces growing uncertainty, states and local governments have become the front lines of climate leadership.
• One proposed law that would amend PURPA is the Hydropower Regulatory Efficiency Act of 2013 (H.R. 267).
• In September 2019, during a FERC hearing, its Chairman Neil Chatterjee voiced his support for making changes to PURPA in light of “tremendous technological advances in renewables” since passage of PURPA in 1978.

It was meant to promote energy conservation (reduce demand) and promote greater use of domestic energy and renewable energy (increase supply). One idea for updating PURPA is to give more flexibility to individual states to use more competitive prices when setting QF rates. When PURPA was originally passed in the late 1970s, many utility companies were https://seonote.info/getting-to-the-point-9/ “vertically integrated” and did not want to buy power from third-party independent generators.

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These plants are encouraged by the law, on the basis that they harness thermal energy (in the form of usable steam) that would be otherwise wasted if electricity alone was produced. As an effect, the number of cogeneration plants, which produce electric power and steam, increased. Utilities offered customers a «rate structure» that decreased the cost per kWh price of electricity with increasing usage, with subsequent increments costing less per unit. https://goodmanner.info/2019/07/11/why-resources-arent-as-bad-as-you-think/ Energy companies were classified as natural monopolies, and for this reason, most were established with vertically integrated structures (that is, they undertook all the functions of generating, transmitting, and distributing electricity to the customer). The main vehicle that the PURPA law used to try and accomplish these goals was by creating a new class of electric generating facilities called “qualifying facilities” (QFs).

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QFs produce power from sources other than fossil fuels, or they make power using a combination of fossil fuels with renewable energy sources. One of the original intentions of PURPA was to try to break the U.S.’s dependence on fossil fuels during the 1970s energy crisis. 267 amends the Public Utility Regulatory Policies Act of 1978 (PURPA) to increase from 5,000 to 10,000 kilowatts the size of small hydroelectric power projects which the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) may exempt from its license requirements. The bill was introduced into the United States House of Representatives of the 113th United States Congress on January 15, 2013, and it passed the House on February 13, 2013 by a vote of 422-0. Utilities became protected as regulated monopolies because it was thought that a company could produce power more efficiently and economically as one company than as several. The Public Utility Regulatory Policies Act (PURPA, Pub. L. 95–617, 92 Stat. 3117, enacted November 9, 1978) is a United States Act passed as part of the National Energy Act.

• At the time generally, where demand was growing, this «avoided cost» was considered to be the construction and fossil fuel costs incurred in the operation of another thermal power plant.
• However, it is still an important piece of legislation promoting renewable energy because it exempts the developers of such projects from numerous State and Federal regulatory regimes.
• The provision which enabled non-utility generators («NUGs») to produce power for use by customers attached to a utility’s grid broke the previous monopoly in the generation function.
• When PURPA was originally passed in the late 1970s, many utility companies were “vertically integrated” and did not want to buy power from third-party independent generators.
• The main vehicle that the PURPA law used to try and accomplish these goals was by creating a new class of electric generating facilities called “qualifying facilities” (QFs).
• Panelists will discuss the strategies that have successfully influenced utility regulation, advanced consumer protections, expanded access to affordable clean energy, and accelerated grid decarbonization.

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Ms. Wheelock went on to work for three different members of the New York State Assembly in both Albany and New York City focusing on a wide variety of issue areas including legislation to promote affordable housing, public access to insurance, nonprofit reform, and environmental protection. ​This panel will explore how advocates, policymakers, consumer https://www.antenna-re.info/a-quick-history-of-7/ organizations, regulators, and other stakeholders are shaping the future of utility policy. The states also raised concerns that the rules could harm renewables deployment in their states and others according to the electric industry news site UTILITY DIVE. A group of opponents, which included eight attorneys general, the FTC, and electric power supply companies, wrote FERC to express their opposition. In the NOPR, FERC asserted that today the country has a high supply of “relatively inexpensive” natural gas due to technological advances and the discovery of new gas reserves.

Ending promotional rate structure

The portion of the act dealing with cogeneration and small power production appears in US code in Title 16 – Conservation, Chapter 12 – Federal Regulation and Development of Power, Subchapter II – Regulation of Electric Utility Companies Engaged in Interstate Commerce, Sec 824a-3 – Cogeneration and Small Power Production. PURPA also became the basic legislation that enabled renewable energy providers to gain a toehold in the market, particularly in California, where state authorities were more aggressive in their interpretation of the statute. PURPA eliminated promotional rate structures except when they could be justified by the cost structure of utility companies. The law was created in response to the 1973 energy crisis, and one year in advance of a second energy crisis.

Renewable energy

To accomplish that, PURPA encouraged creation of small power production facilities called “qualifying facilities” (QFs). In September 2019, the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) announced its intention to update certain provisions of the PURPA law, in a process known as a “notice of proposed rulemaking” (NOPR). 267 would alter those regulations to make it easier for smaller plants to get approval quickly. One proposed law that would amend PURPA is the Hydropower Regulatory Efficiency Act of 2013 (H.R. 267).