ELR Citation: 54 ELR 20041
No(s). 23-1778/23-1790/23-1808/23-1984/23-2544/ 23-2559/23-2560/23-2612 (3d Cir. Mar 12, 2024)

The Third Circuit granted petitions to review FERC orders allowing the administrator of a 2024/2025 capacity auction to apply a new rule retroactively to a pending action to avoid a spike in electricity prices. Electric suppliers and their trade groups argued the orders violated the filed rate doctrine, which forbids retroactive rates, and sought to have them vacated. The appellate court found the new rule was retroactive because it altered the legal consequence attached to a past auction when it allowed the administrator of the auction to use a different locational deliverable area reliability requirement than the one it had calculated and posted, and that FERC violated the filed rate doctrine by approving it. It granted the petitions and vacated the portion of FERC's orders allowing the new rule to be applied to the 2024/2025 capacity auction.