Big Rivers Electric Corporation (BREC) Assessed a Civil Penalty of $336,870 and Disgorgement of $308,341

Summary:

A settlement agreement reached between and FERC stipulates that BREC violated the Commission’s Anti-Manipulation Rule, 18 C.F.R. § 1c.2(a) or other regulations through its communications with the Mid-continent Independent System Operator, Inc. (MISO). This settlement agreement resulted in a civil penalty of $336,870 and disgorgement of $308,341.

Additional Discussion:

Statement of Violation

BREC violated the Commission’s Anti-Manipulation Rule, 18 C.F.R. § 1c.2(a), through the following conduct:

a. To avoid CRNCC penalties, BREC falsely told MISO that its planned outage ended on June 29, 2023, and that its outages from that date until July 6, 2023, were forced, when in fact the outages from June 29 to July 6, 2023, were a continuation of the planned outage.

b. BREC submitted offers to MISO for Green 2 at full availability from July 6 to July 25, 2023, when BREC knew or w as reckless in not knowing that the plant could not run at full availability when its 2A ID fan motor was missing.

c. BREC submitted false and misleading information to the MISO IMM about its expectations for Green 2 running at full availability for Market Day July 26, 2023, and about when the unit’s 2A ID fan motor went to ground.

Civil Penalty and Disgorgement

BREC agreed to pay a civil penalty of $336,870 to the United States Treasury and to pay disgorgement to MISO in the amount of $308,341, consisting of $277,200 (avoided CRNCC penalties), $10,930 (excess capacity payments), and $20,211 (interest).

FERC Required Compliance Monitoring

BREC agrees to provide compliance training to its personnel about the MISO Tariff and the Commission’s Anti-Manipulation Rule and to review its compliance procedures for potential improvements. On the first anniversary, BREC will submit a compliance report to the Director of the Office of Enforcement. If requested by OE staff, BREC will submit a similar report on the second anniversary of the date of this Settlement Agreement. Each compliance monitoring report shall:

(1) identify any known violations of Commission regulations that occurred during the applicable period, including a description of the nature of the violation and what steps were taken to rectify the situation;

(2) describe all compliance measures and procedures BREC instituted or modified during the reporting period related to compliance with Commission regulations; and

(3) describe all Commission-related compliance training that BREC administered during the reporting period, including the dates such training occurred, the topics covered, and the procedures used to confirm which personnel attended.