Kimberly Frank’s practice focuses on electric utility regulation and the economics of complex electricity markets. She represents clients in a broad array of matters before the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) and state regulatory agencies, and in appellate matters arising out of those agencies’ decisions.
Kimberly’s experience includes regional market design and oversight, prudence, fraud, transmission rates and incentives, electric reliability, cost-of-service and demand response. Over the last decade, she has represented state regulatory commissions before FERC and appellate courts on a variety of issues related to capacity markets in New England and the PJM Interconnection. Kimberly also counsels developers of renewable resources on FERC regulatory matters, such as interconnections, and other state regulatory issues related to electric power.
Kimberly recently participated in Restructuring Today’s webinar “Debating the Minimum Offer Price Rule” to discuss proposed changes to the buyer-side market power rule in PJM Interconnection’s capacity market. Kimberly’s article “A Pragmatic New Approach to Assuring Reliability,” co-authored with Randall Speck, is forthcoming in Public Utilities Fortnightly.
Kimberly graduated from Georgetown University Law Center in 2004 and also earned an MA in Economics from the University of Maryland College Park in 1996. Before joining Kaye Scholer, she served as a member of the research faculty at an economics policy institute in the Department of Economics, University of Maryland College Park.
Representative Matters
- Representation of state regulatory commissions before FERC in various matters involving capacity markets, such as the development of the New England Forward Capacity Market design and market rules, federal-state jurisdictional boundaries, alleged fraudulent transactions by capacity importers, reliability requirements and market power mitigation, as well as before federal appellate courts.
- Representation of a state regulatory commission in FERC complaint proceedings that successfully eliminated a regional transmission operator’s discriminatory and preferential tariff provisions exempting certain generators from energy market mitigation, which had been costing the state’s customers more than $80 million annually.
- Representation of an electric utility before the Indiana Utility Regulatory Commission in a complex litigation defending allegations of imprudence, gross mismanagement, fraud and concealment in the design, engineering and construction of a $3 billion integrated gasification combined cycle plant.
- Representation of a state regulatory commission in FERC settlement proceedings to establish cost-of-service rates for must-run electric generators operating to ensure grid reliability, resulting in agreements reducing customer liability by more than $60 million.
- Investigation of electric deregulation in Maryland that produced a settlement with a utility that the Governor estimated had created $2 billion in customer benefits, including severing customers’ financial obligations for decommissioning the Calvert Cliffs nuclear generation plant.
- Representation of a state regulatory commission in FERC proceedings to set transmission providers’ electric transmission rates, including consideration of “incentive adders” and preferential rate treatments for new transmission investments.
- Pro bono representation of a grassroots association of District of Columbia solar generation enthusiasts on a wide variety of legislative and regulatory initiatives, such as resolving unnecessary hurdles to rooftop solar interconnections and metering.