I attended the FERC Commission meeting this morning and it was short and refreshing.  Here are some high points:

FERC issues an order rejecting the proposed amendment to the CAISO creditworthiness provisions, and granting in part the complaint of the generators in the docket (which we supported).  The CAISO is ordered to enforce the existing creditworthiness provisions of its tariff and invoice CDWR for transactions with the non-creditworthy IOUs, within 15 days.  Otherwise, FERC will seek injunctive relief in court to enforce its order.  Also, a creditworthy party must be provided and bills paid, otherwise, the must offer requirement will be suspended (applies to California).  Commissioner Massey dissented on the suspension of the must offer requirement.  Wood indicated that he supported the order as written and quipped that "the ISO must now do what we told them to do the 3rd time!"  The remaining Commissioners voted in favor.

Unanimous vote on a 6-page order which establishes the FERC "business plan" on how it will move forward on RTO's, electricity market design and structure, so that faster progress can be made.

Watch for a future order relaxing the FERC's ex parte rules to facilitate communication between FERC and state commissioners.  The idea is that communications will be more freely made and that a transcript of the communication will be filed in the record of the proceeding to comply with due process and other legal requirements.

I gathered the above from the discussions held at the meeting as the draft orders are not yet available.  We will review them upon receipt, and update this e-mail if necessary. 

Ray Alvarez