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On July 16, 2020, the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC or the Commission) approved a Final Rule revising the Commission’s regulations implementing the Public Utility Regulatory Policies Act of 1978 (PURPA) (See a prior GT Alert for more details on PURPA and FERC’s overhaul). The Final Rule will take effect 120 days after its publication in the Federal Register.

PURPA, among other things, requires electric utilities – private and public – to purchase power from certain cogeneration facilities and small power producers that are QFs under the statute.

When FERC released the Notice of Proposed Rulemaking (NOPR) in September 2019, it said that the proposed changes were intended to continue encouraging development of Qualifying Facilities (QFs), described further below, while addressing concerns regarding how the current regulations work in today’s competitive wholesale power markets. The NOPR proposed to revise the Commission’s regulations implementing sections 201 and 210 of PURPA and incorporated the record of a FERC 2016 technical conference addressing issues involving PURPA’s implementation.

Read our full GT Alert by clicking here. 

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Photo of Gregory K. Lawrence Gregory K. Lawrence

Gregory K. Lawrence focuses his practice on the electricity and natural gas industries. He is experienced appearing before the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) and multiple state utility commissions regarding regulatory proceedings, compliance and enforcement, capacity and energy market structure, transactions and negotiations,

Gregory K. Lawrence focuses his practice on the electricity and natural gas industries. He is experienced appearing before the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) and multiple state utility commissions regarding regulatory proceedings, compliance and enforcement, capacity and energy market structure, transactions and negotiations, asset transfers, and governmental affairs. Greg’s clients include funds and financial institutions, marketers, traders, renewable and other project developers, energy storage and demand response assets, municipal and investor-owned utilities, and large energy consumers.

Recognized as a leading energy and electricity lawyer by Chambers USA, Greg is a frequent speaker at energy industry conferences and a contributor to a wide range of publications, including The Electricity Journal, Electric Light & Power, Energy Risk, Bloomberg Law Reports, Project Finance International, Corporate Counsel, Windpower Engineering, and EnergyLaw 360. He also authored a quarterly column in Electric Energy T&D Magazine and “Rationalizing Supply with Demand: Electricity Demand Response in U.S. Wholesale Electricity Markets,” a book chapter in U.S. Law and Taxation.

Photo of Thomas O. Lemon Thomas O. Lemon

Thomas O. Lemon focuses his practice on litigation and regulation in the energy sector. After receiving his J.D. from Washington University in St. Louis in 2011, Tom worked as an attorney-advisor in the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission’s (FERC) Office of Enforcement. In his

Thomas O. Lemon focuses his practice on litigation and regulation in the energy sector. After receiving his J.D. from Washington University in St. Louis in 2011, Tom worked as an attorney-advisor in the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission’s (FERC) Office of Enforcement. In his time at the Commission, Tom worked on nearly every type of FERC Enforcement matter, and has extensive experience with natural gas and electricity market fraud and manipulation claims, NERC reliability standards violations, wholesale demand response, and LMP and capacity price formation. He has done investigatory and enforcement work in several ISO and RTO markets, including CAISO, PJM, NYISO, and ISO New England.

Jack LeBris Erffmeyer

ack T. LeBris Erffmeyer is a member of the Energy & Natural Resources Practice in Greenberg Traurig’s Washington, D.C. office. As a former Assistant Attorney General for the Public Utilities Bureau in the Office of the Illinois Attorney General, Jack was responsible for…

ack T. LeBris Erffmeyer is a member of the Energy & Natural Resources Practice in Greenberg Traurig’s Washington, D.C. office. As a former Assistant Attorney General for the Public Utilities Bureau in the Office of the Illinois Attorney General, Jack was responsible for the prosecution and management of all aspects of administrative litigation before the Illinois Commerce Commission (ICC) on electricity and natural gas cases and before the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) on interstate wholesale electricity market cases. His experience includes casework related to formula rate update cases, traditional rate cases, and rider reconciliations, implicating issues such as prudence of capital expenditures, cost-allocation, novel rate designs, accumulated and excess deferred income tax regulatory accounting, statutory infrastructure upgrade programs, bad debt expense, return on equity, and ratemaking implications of the 2017 federal income tax law change.