This may be the most important article you read today. A few excerpts to entice you to read it all bit.ly/FERC19Aug Building wind farms and huge solar arrays means nothing if they cannot transmit that energy to homes and businesses, and a recent court ruling just made connecting to the grid a lot easier. The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission, commonly known as FERC, doesn’t often draw headlines for fulfilling its duty of regulating electricity, gas, and oil transmission. However a Friday ruling from the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit affirming a 2011 FERC order is poised to usher in major changes in the way utilities and regulators consider transmission and to open pathways for more renewables to enter the grid. The original order was challenged by 45 different petitioners made up of state regulatory agencies, utilities, and electric industry trade associations. They argued that FERC was overstepping its authority and that Order 1000 was “arbitrary and capricious and unsupported by substantial evidence.” However the seven-part ruling from the D.C. Circuit Court found that these “contentions are unpersuasive.”
Posted on: Wed, 20 Aug 2014 11:57:56 +0000