LS Power Development, LLC and Cross Texas Transmission, LLC requested that FERC issue a declaratory order confirming that the Electricity Reliability Council of Texas (ERCOT) transmission system, and electric utilities, generators, retail electric providers, and transmission and distribution service providers participating in the ERCOT market (ERCOT Market Participants) that are not currently subject to the Commission’s jurisdiction under Part II of the Federal Power Act (the FPA), will not become subject to that jurisdiction as the result of the provision by employees of LSP Development, Cross Texas and/or their affiliates that are located in ERCOT of transmission system operations services, corporate services, and engineering services (together, the Control Center Services) to affiliated transmission providers in other regions of the United States.

Cross Texas currently operates its transmission facilities from the Cross Texas Control Center in Austin, Texas, and also has employees in other parts of Texas. Other affiliates of LSP Development are currently also in the process of developing transmission projects in other regions of the United States. For administrative efficiency and other business reasons, LSP Development seeks to use the Cross Texas Control Center as the main control center for certain of its affiliated transmission projects. That is, employees of LSP Development, Cross Texas and/or their affiliates would be located in the Cross Texas Control Center or elsewhere in ERCOT, and would provide the Control Center Services to affiliated transmission projects located outside of ERCOT.

Such Control Center Services would not result in the construction of any new transmission facilities that would interconnect ERCOT to any other region of the United States or allow for the commingling of energy between ERCOT and other regions, nor will there be any sales of electric energy or transmission across state lines. Instead, the Control Center Services will involve the day-to-day operation and administration of the transmission assets owned by LSP Development and its affiliates, including responsibility for real-time monitoring, inspection and field maintenance, and compliance with North American Electric Reliability Corporation (NERC) and regional transmission organization or independent system operator standards and requirements, the companies said

The companies sought FERC's confirmation that the provision of the Control Center Services by employees that are located in the Cross Texas Control Center or other parts of ERCOT, will not disturb the jurisdictional status quo with respect to ERCOT and ERCOT Market Participants because the Control Center Services do not involve the sale or transmission of electric energy in interstate commerce

The companies said that such confirmation is consistent with FERC precedent, since the Control Center Services will not involve the construction or operation of any new transmission lines that would allow for the transmission or sale of electric energy in interstate commerce, or commingling of electric energy that is transmitted in interstate commerce.

Accordingly, there will not be any new facilities that would allow electric energy to "be sold, transmitted, or consumed outside of Texas," and the provision of the Control Center Services will not result in any change to the Commission’s "analysis of power flows and the nature of the interconnection transactions []."

Rather than allowing for any new flows of electric energy into or out of ERCOT, LSP Development’s, Cross Texas’s and/or their affiliates’ employees will simply use the Cross Texas Control Center, under an affiliate services contract, to operate transmission facilities in other parts of the country, the companies said