FERC Issues Annual Enforcement Report

FERC's Office of Enforcement issued its annual Report on Enforcement in which it detailed enforcement priorities and achievements, and renewed its focus on (i) fraud and market manipulation, (ii) serious violations of mandatory Reliability Standards, and (iii) conduct that threatens the transparency of regulated markets.

The report highlighted, among other things, that:

• Department of Investigations ("DOI") staff opened 17 new investigations, brought 15 pending investigations to closure with no action or settlement and, during fiscal year 2014, obtained settlements resulting in almost $25 million in civil penalties and the disgorgement of $4 million in unjust profits; and
• Audits and Accounting staff reviewed the conduct of regulated entities through 19 financial and operational audits of public utilities and natural gas pipelines, resulting in 162 recommendations for corrective action and refunds and recoveries totaling more than $11.7 million.

The report also noted that, in an effort to enhance its ability to conduct surveillance of the natural gas and electric markets, and to analyze individual market participant behavior, FERC collaborated with the CFTC to receive its large trader reporting data.

The annual report was prepared jointly by the FERC Office of Enforcement's four divisions: Investigations, Audits, Energy Market Oversight, and Analytics and Surveillance.

See: FERC's Annual Report on Enforcement.