H.R. 3632 · Passed House · Energy

Power Plant Reliability Act of 2025

Sponsor: H. Morgan Griffith (R-VA)

What it does

• Allows transmission organizations, in addition to state commissions, to file complaints asking FERC to keep a power plant open because its retirement would make the bulk power system unreliable.
• Requires FERC, on finding interstate service inadequate or likely to become so within five years, to order the proper service by order, rule, or regulation.
• Allows FERC to order a plant to stay open for up to five years, with extensions at the request of an affected state commission, transmission organization, or plant.
• Requires FERC orders to set compensation for the added costs and allocate them, and requires plant owners to give five years' notice before a planned retirement except in emergencies.
• Exempts certain actions from federal, state, and local environmental laws and regulations.

Official summary

Power Plant Reliability Act of 2025 This bill modifies the process that the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) uses to determine, upon a complaint from a state commission, whether a public utility (i.e., power plant) must remain open because the retirement of the power plant will make the bulk power system unreliable, including by allowing transmission organizations to also file complaints with FERC. If FERC finds that any interstate service of any public utility is inadequate or insufficient, or is likely to become inadequate or insufficient within five years of receiving such complaint, then FERC must determine the proper, adequate, or sufficient service to be furnished through an order, rule, or regulation (order). The bill specifies that FERC may order a power plant to remain open for up to five years. Any affected state commission, transmission organization, or power plant may request that FERC extend such order. A FERC order must determine (1) any rate or charge necessary to provide compensation for the additional costs of the service, and (2) the cost allocation of any rate or charge. A power plant owner or operator must notify FERC and affected state commissions…

Latest action

Dec 17, 2025: Received in the Senate and Read twice and referred to the Committee on Energy and Natural Resources.

Committee: Senate Energy and Natural Resources