Energy Markets: Additional Actions Would Help Ensure That FERC's Oversight and Enforcement Capability Is Comprehensive and Systematic

On July 28, 2004, FERC reported that it had more clearly defined OMOI's role in overseeing the nation's energy markets by describing OMOI's activities in FERC's strategic plan relative to carrying out FERC's statutory requirements to ensure just and reasonable prices and to prevent market manipulation. According to FERC, the strategic plan clearly lays out the nature and importance of protecting customers and market participants through vigilant and fair market oversight.

On July 28, 2004, FERC reported that it had more clearly defined OMOI's role by explicitly establishing the level of detail at which OMOI will routinely review market transactions. Specifically, FERC stated that OMOI routinely reviews markets at several levels but that generally OMOI reviews aggregate data to find anomalous patterns that warrant further study, sometimes down to the transaction level. Examples of OMOI's market reviews include the "Market Surveillance Report" and "The State of the Markets Report."

On July 28, 2004, FERC reported that it had more clearly defined OMOI's role by delineating--in its strategic plan, business plan, and a FERC-wide priority list--how other FERC offices and other organizations, including the market monitoring units, share in and contribute to OMOI's mission and establishing expectations for how they will work together.

FERC reports that it has fully implemented this recommendation. Specifically, the Office of Enforcement (formerly called the Office of Market Oversight and Investigation or OMOI) routinely documents its work processes with written documentation. Since the 2004 response, FERC has finished written processes for training and have added written processes for several other key activities, including: (1) Potential Areas of Concern (PACs). This shows how FERC identifies potentially troubling anomalies in market outcomes and how they determine what procedural path to use to follow up on such anomalies; (2) Electric Quarterly Report. This documents how FERC validates EQR submissions and performs recurring analyses; (3) Website. This documents how FERC maintains and updates the new Market Oversight website (part of the Commission's overall website); (4) Daily Meeting. This details how FERC prepares for, holds, and follows up on the Daily Oversight Meeting; (5) Work Planning Process. This details how it updates the priorities and resource assignments weekly.

The fiscal year 2004 version of FERC's human capital plan includes individual action plans for each FERC office and for the Division of Human Resources Services. These action plans contain targeted human capital initiatives, ranked by priority, with success measures and target dates for completion. Human resources staff meet periodically with office representatives to review progress under these action plans.