On February 21, the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) issued two final rules revising regulations in order to conform to recent changes made by Congress to the Federal Power Act (FPA), in relation to FERC’s review of hydropower permits and public utility mergers.

The rule related to mergers “implements statutory changes to FPA section 203 by amending FERC regulations requiring a public utility to seek authorization to merge or consolidate jurisdictional facilities so that such authorization is required only when those facilities are valued at more than $10 million.”

These revisions will also require public utility companies to tell FERC about “mergers or consolidations if the facilities are valued at more than $1 million but less than $10 million.” It will also “reduce the regulatory burden on utilities for lower-value transactions, and the final action comes within the 180-day period set by Congress.”

The rule about hydropower “conforms the Commission’s regulations to the America’s Water Infrastructure Act of 2018, which amended sections of the FPA related to preliminary permits, qualifying conduit hydropower facilities, and start for payment of annual charges. Under the Act and the Commission’s amended rules, FERC can issue preliminary permits for four years and extend a permit once for an additional four years, instead of three-year terms for preliminary permits with a possible two-year extension.”

This rule also now allows FERC to “issue a second four-year extension if warranted by extraordinary circumstances.” FERC also increased the “maximum installed capacity for qualifying conduit exemptions is increased from five megawatts (MW) to 40 MW.”

FERC was authorized by the Act to “to issue extensions of the start of construction deadline for licenses for up to eight years, which affects the start of the payment of annual charges … Annual charges will begin two years after a license is issued or any extension deadline expires.”

The third rule FERC issued was to clarify and update the “requirements related to interlocking officers and directors.” FERC’s position on “late-filed applications and informational reports” was also clarified.

• FERC