PPL EnergyPlus, LLC v. Nazarian

753 F.3d 467, 2014 WL 2445800
CourtCourt of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit
DecidedJune 2, 2014
DocketNos. 13-2419, 13-2424
StatusPublished
Cited by17 cases

This text of 753 F.3d 467 (PPL EnergyPlus, LLC v. Nazarian) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
PPL EnergyPlus, LLC v. Nazarian, 753 F.3d 467, 2014 WL 2445800 (4th Cir. 2014).

Opinion

Affirmed by published opinion. Judge WILKINSON wrote the opinion, in which Judge KEENAN and Judge DIAZ joined.

WILKINSON, Circuit Judge:

At issue is a Maryland program to subsidize the participation of a new power plant in the federal wholesale energy market. Appellees are energy firms that compete with this new plant in interstate commerce. They contend that the Maryland scheme is preempted under the Federal Power Act’s authorizing provisions, which grant exclusive authority over interstate rates to the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission. The district court agreed. For the reasons that follow, we affirm.

I.

A.

For much of the 20th century, the energy market was dominated by vertically integrated firms that produced, transmitted, and delivered power to end-use customers. New York v. FERC, 535 U.S. 1, 5, 122 S.Ct. 1012, 152 L.Ed.2d 47 (2002); PPL Energyplus, LLC v. Nazarian, 974 F.Supp.2d 790, 798 (D.Md.2013) (opinion below). These firms were subject to extensive local regulation, though state power in this respect was limited by the strictures of the dormant Commerce Clause. See Pub. Utils. Comm’n v. Attleboro [472]*472Steam & Elec. Co., 273 U.S. 83, 89, 47 S.Ct. 294, 71 L.Ed. 549 (1927).

The Federal Power Act (FPA), passed in 1935, was designed in part to fill the regulatory gap created by the dormant Commerce Clause and cover the then-nascent field of interstate electricity sales. It vests the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) with authority over the “transmission of electric energy in interstate commerce” and the “sale of electric energy at wholesale in interstate commerce.” 16 U.S.C. § 824(b)(1). Federal regulation has become increasingly prominent as the energy market has shifted away from local monopolies to a system of interstate competition. See New York, 535 U.S. at 7, 122 S.Ct. 1012.

Rather than ensuring the reasonableness of interstate transactions by directly setting rates, FERC has chosen instead to achieve its regulatory aims indirectly by protecting “the integrity of the interstate energy markets.” N.J. Bd. of Pub. Utils. v. FERC, 744 F.3d 74, 81 (3d Cir.2014). To this end, FERC has authorized the creation of “regional transmission organizations” to oversee certain multistate markets. PJM Interconnection, LLC (PJM), superintended by FERC, administers a large regional market that (as relevant here) includes Maryland and the District of Columbia.

PJM operates both energy and capacity markets. The energy market is essentially a real-time market that enables PJM to buy and sell electricity to distributors for delivery within the next hour or 24 hours.

The capacity market is a forward-looking market, which gives buyers the option to purchase electricity in the future. In the capacity market, PJM sets a quota based on how much capacity it predicts will be needed three years hence and then relies on a Reliability Pricing Model (RPM) to determine the appropriate price per unit. Auction participants bid to sell capacity for a single year, three years in the future. PJM stacks the bids from lowest to highest and, starting at the bottom, accepts bids until it has acquired sufficient capacity to satisfy its quota.

The highest-priced bid that PJM must accept to meet this quota establishes the market-clearing price. Every generator who bids at or below this level “clears” the market and is paid the clearing price, regardless of the price at which it actually bid. Existing generators are permitted to bid at zero as “price-takers,” meaning they agree to sell at whatever the clearing price turns out to be.

Both the capacity and energy markets are designed to efficiently allocate supply and demand, a function which has the collateral benefit of incentivizing the construction of new power plants when necessary. Clearing prices occasionally differ based on geographical subdivisions designed by FERC to stimulate new construction by signaling that certain regions are prone to supply shortages. Such price signals are not the sole mechanism for incentivizing generation, however. PJM’s new entry price adjustment (NEPA) guarantees certain new producers a fixed price for three years to “support ... the new entrant until sufficient load growth [i.e., increased demand] would be expected to” do so. PJM Interconnection, LLC, 128 FERC ¶ 61, 157, at ¶ 101 (2009).

In 2006, FERC instituted a requirement (the minimum offer price rule, or MOPR) that new generators in certain circumstances bid at or above a specified price, fixed according to the agency’s estimation of a generic energy project’s cost. This rule was designed to prevent the manipulation of clearing prices through the exercise of buyer market power. The MOPR originally exempted certain state-sup[473]*473ported generators, however, and permitted them to bid at zero.

Following a complaint lodged by several competitors, FERC eliminated the exemption for state-sanctioned plants. The new rule required such plants to bid initially at the agency-specified minimum price unless they could demonstrate that their actual costs were lower than this default price. FERC held that this adjustment was necessary to protect the integrity of its markets against below-cost bids by subsidized plants that might artificially suppress clearing prices. See PJM Interconnection, LLC, 137 FERC ¶ 61, 145, at ¶ 96 (2011).

As these features suggest, the federal markets are the product of a finely-wrought scheme that attempts to achieve a variety of different aims. FERC rules encourage the construction of new plants and sustain existing ones. They seek to preclude state distortion of wholesale prices while preserving general state authority over generation sources. They satisfy short-term demand and ensure sufficient long-term supply. In short, the federal scheme is carefully calibrated to protect a host of competing interests. It represents a comprehensive program of regulation that is quite sensitive to external tampering.

B.

In 1999, Maryland decided to abandon the vertical integration model and throw in its lot with the federal interstate markets. Deregulation was accomplished by the Electric Customer Choice and Competition Act, Md.Code Ann., Pub. Utils. § 7-501, et seq., which divested utilities of their generation resources, effectively compelling Maryland energy firms to participate in the federal wholesale markets. See PPL Energyplus, LLC, 974 F.Supp.2d at 815. The state believed that these markets would ultimately produce more efficient and cost-effective service than traditional monopolies, thus providing state residents the benefit of lower prices. See In the Matter of Baltimore Gas and Electric Company’s Proposal, Order No. 81423, at 36 (Md. Pub. Serv. Comm’n, May 2007). Maryland’s decision to participate in the federal scheme and enjoy its benefits was necessarily accompanied by a relinquishment of the regulatory autonomy the state had formerly enjoyed with respect to traditional utility monopolies.

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Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
753 F.3d 467, 2014 WL 2445800, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/ppl-energyplus-llc-v-nazarian-ca4-2014.