DOCKET
DEFENDER
Federal Energy Regulatory Commission — Simulation
You are the Commission: every ruling steers who wins the next fight — open access, interconnection queues, market power, reliability. The docket deck is not a fixed playlist: after the Order No. 888 fork, your path reshapes which OATT and LGIP scenarios surface, how crises hit, and what kind of transmission system you are implicitly building under the Federal Power Act and Department of Energy Organization Act framework. Track reliability, ratepayer impact, utility investment, and clout; read the filing, issue your order, then flip the real case — and bank extra clout when you line up with history.
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Commission briefing
Welcome to the bench. You are stepping into a long-running federal energy regime: statutes, tariffs, and five Senate-confirmed votes that turn abstract law into grid outcomes.
This simulation is ground zero for how a Commissioner encounters the docket queue — not a recap of yesterday’s headlines, but the steady work of applying the Federal Power Act to real filings.
When a ruling lines up with the documented FERC outcome for that card, you earn a small extra Political Clout bonus (★ precedent-aligned) — creative trade-offs still count; history is an optional guide.
Department of Energy Organization Act
The Department of Energy Organization Act of 1977 created DOE and placed FERC inside the executive branch as an independent regulator. Your electric jurisdiction is carried in the Federal Power Act; the DOE Organization Act is part of the statutory scaffolding for how the Commission issues rules and orders.
You do not need to memorize the act to play — but knowing it exists explains why FERC shows up as a rulemaking body with enforcement tools, not just a court of tariff appeals.
Five Commissioners
FERC has five Commissioners, nominated by the President and confirmed by the Senate for staggered five-year terms. No more than three may belong to the same political party. Major orders take a majority vote; dissents and concurrences shape the record and signal how future benches might read the same statute.
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⚖ How to Play
You serve as a FERC Commissioner: the Commission’s work sits at the intersection of the Federal Power Act and the Department of Energy Organization Act framework. Each session is a campaign on one dashboard: the same four pillars (reliability, ratepayer impact, utility investment, clout) track your arc across a branching docket queue drawn from real-world OATT and LGIP patterns. Make binding rulings, balance the pillars, and see how your record holds up against history.
When your ruling matches the documented FERC outcome for a card, you earn a small extra Political Clout bonus (★ precedent-aligned). Other paths remain valid — history is a guide, not a test with one right answer.
♦ The Four Pillars
Measures whether the transmission system can survive N-1 contingencies without cascading failure (NERC TPL-001). Favored by reliability-hardline rulings; damaged by waiving compliance or ignoring capacity constraints. If this reaches zero, the session still continues; the final report summarizes severe reliability stress.
Every FERC order is ultimately paid by ratepayers through transmission rates. High ROE approvals and large cost allocations drain this; rate denials and refunds help it recover. If this reaches zero, the session still continues; the final report summarizes severe affordability stress.
Reflects transmission owners’ willingness to invest in new grid infrastructure, driven by allowed ROE and cost recovery certainty. Strong ROE approvals feed it; rate denials and compliance penalties drain it. If this reaches zero, the session still continues; the final report summarizes severe investment-signal stress.
Accumulated regulatory credibility. Earned on every ruling. When your decision matches FERC’s actual historical outcome, you earn a ★ Precedent-Aligned +3 bonus. Clout is capped at 120. The final report may show at most one career recognition: Chairman at maximum clout, or a pillar-specific outcome when a pillar reaches 100 (if you qualify for several, you see the one that wins the tie-break).
♦ Docket Types
♦ Jargon & Tooltips
Every underlined term in a docket narrative is a real FERC or NERC term. Hover it to see a plain-English definition drawn directly from the pro forma OATT, LGIP, and Federal Power Act. Hover any stat bar for a reminder of what it measures. No prior knowledge required — but professionals will recognize the real proceedings.
♦ Winning & Scoring
Complete every docket in your session to reach the Final Commission Report. Pillar scores can fall to zero without ending early; consequences appear on the final report and debrief. Each run draws a standard-length, path-weighted mix of proceedings—replay to see different dockets. FERC Chronicle: if you issue Order No. 888 on the same terms as the historical Commission, your docket year follows major-order chronology for your path; matching FERC wherever a card offers a historical ruling earns FERC Chronicle recognition. Your session score is one composite from 0–100 derived from the four meters (pillars 0–100, clout 0–120). The report shows your meter levels, a qualitative read under the score, regulatory philosophy, a session debrief, optional precedents, and your decisions—illustrative regulatory fiction, not legal advice.
The Precedent-Aligned Clout bonus (+3) fires when your ruling matches the real FERC outcome on that exact proceeding type — a reward for domain knowledge that doesn’t punish creative play on other choices.
📚 Learn: FERC Basics
These explainers give you the background knowledge to understand every docket in the game. Click any heading to expand it.
The Department of Energy Organization Act of 1977 (Pub. L. 95-91) established the Department of Energy and assigned the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission as an independent regulator within the executive branch. The Federal Power Act supplies substantive electric jurisdiction; the DOE Organization Act supplies part of the institutional frame for how FERC operates as a rulemaking and enforcement agency.
For gameplay purposes, you only need the intuition: FERC is not a free-floating tribunal — it is a statutory creature with a fixed number of Commissioners and a defined role in the U.S. energy policy landscape.
FERC has five Commissioners. Each is nominated by the President and confirmed by the Senate for a staggered five-year term. No more than three may belong to the same political party. Most orders require a majority vote. Dissents and concurrences do not change the outcome of the vote, but they shape the record and often preview how a differently composed Commission might rule later.
Every FERC docket is a formal proceeding with standardized parts.
e.g. ER26-1001-000. The prefix identifies the type: ER = Electric Rate (utility-filed tariff change) | EL = Electric Litigation (complaint against existing rate) | RM = Rulemaking (policy proceeding affecting all utilities) | AD = Administrative docket (FERC-initiated review). The numeric segment is the unique filing ID; the suffix -000, -001 denotes the filing sequence within that docket.
The applicant (in §205 filings) or complainant (in §206 cases) opens the proceeding. Intervenors are other parties who join because they have a stake in the outcome — state public utility commissions, consumer advocates, competing utilities, trade associations. All intervenors may file comments and request rehearing.
This is the factual and legal question before the Commission. FERC must determine whether a proposed action is “just and reasonable” under the Federal Power Act. Every ruling must be explained on the record or it risks reversal by the D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals.
FERC can: (a) approve as filed; (b) suspend for up to 5 months and investigate; (c) set for formal hearing; (d) accept subject to refund; or (e) impose conditions. The choice of remedy is itself a legal determination grounded in the FPA and record evidence.
FERC has five Commissioners; major orders require a majority vote (3 of 5, or 2 of 3 if a seat is vacant). When a Commissioner disagrees with the majority, they may write a dissent — a separate opinion explaining why the order is wrong on the facts or law.
A concurrence is filed by a Commissioner who agrees with the final outcome but disagrees with the reasoning or wants to address additional points.
Dissents and concurrences do not change the final order, but they become part of the official record, are cited by federal courts, and often signal that policy may shift when the Commission’s composition changes. Many landmark FERC rulemakings were foreshadowed by dissenting opinions filed years earlier.
In Docket Defender, some rulings draw a Commissioner dissent on the resolution screen after you choose. Hover “Dissent” there for a full explanation.
Under FPA §313(a), any aggrieved party may petition FERC to reconsider its order within 30 days of issuance. Seeking rehearing is a mandatory prerequisite before a party can appeal to the federal circuit courts — if you skip this step, you lose your right to judicial review.
FERC may: (a) grant rehearing and issue a modified order; (b) deny the petition; or (c) allow it to be denied by operation of law after 30 days of inaction (this preserves the party’s appellate rights without the Commission taking a new vote).
In Docket Defender, some controversial rulings will trigger a Rehearing Petition card. You must resolve it before the session continues — and the secondary effects can alter your pillar scores.
The Federal Power Act (16 U.S.C. §824d) requires all interstate transmission and wholesale power rates to be “just and reasonable” and not “unduly discriminatory or preferential.” This phrase is the foundation of every FERC rate case.
The key procedural asymmetry:
- FPA §205 — A utility has the right to file new or changed rates. FERC may accept or suspend, but the utility bears the burden of proof that the proposed rate is just and reasonable.
- FPA §206 — FERC or a complainant challenges an existing rate. FERC bears the burden of showing the current rate is unjust. This is much harder to win, which is why most rate challenges fail or settle.
FERC Order 888 (1996) required all public utilities to file an Open Access Transmission Tariff (OATT) providing non-discriminatory access to their transmission systems. The OATT is a standardized tariff with dozens of attachments governing rate design, interconnection, curtailment priority, and more.
The Large Generator Interconnection Procedures (LGIP) are a separate appendix (or Attachment P) to the OATT governing how generators >20 MW apply for and obtain transmission interconnection. Every solar, wind, storage, and gas plant seeking to connect to the grid goes through the LGIP queue.
ISO/RTOs (like PJM, MISO, CAISO, SPP, ISO-NE, and NYISO) operate under their own FERC-approved tariffs and have their own interconnection procedures, but all are subject to FERC’s jurisdiction under the FPA.
Every card follows the same loop: read the filing, choose a ruling, then see applied pillar impacts and short explanations on the resolution screen, and open the real FERC ruling to compare. Your session branches through transmission and interconnection scenarios; the four pillar meters show how your choices stack up over time.
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