Commissioner Richard Glick Statement
May 19, 2020
Docket No. ER20-715-001
Concurrence Regarding New York Independent System Operator, Inc., and Central Hudson Gas & Electric Corporation
I concur in today’s order, including the Commission’s conclusion that Central Hudson Gas & Electric Corporation’s (Central Hudson) request for an Advanced Technology Adder does not satisfy its burden under either section 205[1] or section 219[2] of the Federal Power Act (Act). I write separately to underscore that our conclusion is based on Central Hudson’s failure to make the requisite showing on this particular record. It is not a judgment on whether the technology at issue could merit such an incentive.
In section 219(b)(3) of the FPA, Congress directed the Commission to “encourage deployment of transmission technologies and other measures to increase the capacity and efficiency of existing transmission facilities and improve the operation of the facilities.”[3] Although I have my doubts about whether an ROE adder has ever been a sufficient enough measure to carry out that statutory directive,[4] the potential limitations of an ROE-based approach to incentivizing those technologies make it only that much more important that the Commission grant those incentive requests that meet the relevant standard under either section 205 or section 219.[5]
For these reasons, I respectfully concur.
[1] 16 U.S.C. § 824d (2018).
[2] Id. § 824s.
[3] Id. § 824s(b)(3).
[4] See Electric Transmission Incentives Policy Under Section 219 of the Federal Power Act, 170 FERC ¶ 61,204 (2020) (Glick, Comm’r, dissenting in part at PP 31-33).
[5] N.Y. Indep. Sys. Operator, Inc., 171 FERC ¶ 61,119, at PP 22, 24 (2020) (reciting those standards).