New FERC Rules for MBR to be Announced Soon
The FERC (Federal Energy Regulatory Commission) is likely to change the content and type of data that will need to be submitted by electric power and ancillary service companies, who are authorized to sell at MBR (market-based rate). This will be laid out in Order no. 860 and other follow-up rules coming out in the fall.
FERC Rules for MBR Firms
As per FERC’s rules, companies planning to apply for MBR must provide market power analyses for the areas where they plan to sell. Such companies should also prepare another report for asset additions, including “indicative” evidence that they cannot utilize parallel market power through other power-generating companies owned by them.
Upon approval for MBR, they are bound to revise the data every three years and inform FERC within thirty days whenever there are changes in status from information provided in their application. Again, they have to submit proof to check that other firms owning equity in the company are sleeping partners and will not interfere in their routine activities.
They are also required to show flow charts of their company hierarchy and management. Order no. 860, effective from July 1, 2021, has changed these rules in various manners.
Release Database
– The Order clearly states that MBR companies should submit this data in FERC’s public “relational database,” a format where various data tables are linked through separate identifiers.
XML
– This data should be put in the database in XML format instead of the usual electronic spreadsheet. This will allow MBR sellers to check and update their applications based on the screen results, triennial market data, and any other status changes.
Monthly Updates
– In addition to updates every three years and submission of status changes, the order states that companies should update the database every month, and the status changes every quarter.
Changes in existing rules
– The new order waives the existing rules of filing corporate hierarchy charts and the proof of sleeping equity partners if stated in the application.
With a transitional period until September 2021, FERC suggests MBR firms get their earlier data filing changed to the XML format to enter into the relational database, which is due on Nov 2, 2021.
Regarding filing status changes, the earliest data for such submissions under the new rules is Nov 30, 2021. Afterward, these submissions are required to be submitted 30 days after the calendar quarter when the change took place.
Order 860 and its family of changes are pieces of a greater plan on behalf of FERC to update and make its MBR program more efficient. It also aims to ensure that it can link data given to it by other companies under other mandatory disclosures. In an attached Order no 861, FERC absolved MBR firms from filing data from other organized markets of operation supervised by other entities and operators with similar checks and alleviation mechanisms already approved by it.
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