Commonwealth Edison Co. has requested waivers and authorizations from FERC to allow a number of its industrial and commercial customers with on-site generation to sell excess power to the utility during summer peak demand periods without first obtaining Commission approval.

ComEd is seeking expedited treatment of its request so that the potential sellers can begin selling energy to the Midwest utility by June 1, and continue the sales through Sept. 30. It said it already has identified a number of retail commercial and industrial customers, which own generating facilities primarily for self-generation or for backup purposes, that may be able to sell it energy this summer. ComEd estimates that it will be able to purchase an aggregate of about 50 MW from these customers during the summer months [ER01-1965].

The Chicago-based utility told the Commission that it believes power purchases from the customers will help to ease tight supplies in the Midwest market during peak periods this summer.

But “because it would be impracticable for numerous small sellers to request authorization to sell small amounts of power to ComEd on the infrequent occasions when ComEd expects to call upon it, ComEd requests, on behalf of all those entities, the streamlined regulatory treatment” that would exempt them from the prior-notice requirements under Section 205 of the Federal Power Act, the utility said.

ComEd, however, pledged to provide information on each purchase in a special section of its third-quarter transaction report, identifying the name of each seller, the aggregate amount sold to ComEd and the amount paid for the power.

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