Part 1: The demand surge and the DOE’s Section 403 direction
Over the past six months, the Department of Energy (DOE) and the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) have each taken major steps that challenge the 90-year-old boundary between federal and state authority over the electric grid. FERC regulates the interstate wholesale electricity market and the high-voltage transmission system that supports it; state public utility commissions regulate retail sales to end-use customers and the local distribution infrastructure that delivers power to homes and businesses.