Chatterjee rekindles grid resilience debate with call for state, grid operator engagement

摘要

Federal Energy Regulatory Commission action on grid resilience could be forthcoming, Chairman Neil Chatterjee suggested Wednesday. After nixing a contentious proposal (RM18-1) from the Department of Energy to institute new market rules providing for full cost recovery and a return on investment for generators with 90-day on-site fuel supplies, FERC in January 2018 launched a holistic review (AD18-7) of the resilience of the bulk power system. The agency said the results of that review would determine whether commission action on grid resilience was warranted. The comment window for that proceeding closed over a year ago, and the commission had mostly been mum on what, if any, next steps would follow. This led some to wonder whether the issue had been usurped by other concerns and was essentially dead at FERC, especially in light of several federal efforts to curb retirements of coal and nuclear units in the name of resilience and national security that were met with much resistance and found little success.