Feds Address Renewable Transmission Queue

In an effort to get more renewable energy into the nation’s, as well as California’s, transmission system, the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission directed regional grid operators to report the status of attempts to connect new power supplies to their lines. FERC also said March 20, it is increasing its staff to work on interconnection, as well as attempting to create more efficient modeling for system impacts. “This allows regional flexibility,” said FERC chair Joe Kelliher. The commission declined a formal rulemaking because, he said, it would delay interconnection reforms. In California, the “queue” problem is becoming a well-known policy issue. The Senate Energy, Utilities & Communications Committee was briefed on it March 11. Since 2006, renewable energy developers representing almost 57,000 MW of energy capacity have lined up for approval. They put down $10,000 to get into the queue in order to be reviewed for a connection to the state’s grid. With such a long line, regulators and agencies are trying to figure out which projects are viable. Thus, they can work out how the transmission system can interconnect, and/or be built, to accommodate the new electricity supply. In California, the California Independent System Operator plans to pitch its ideas to thin the waiting list to federal regulators this summer. That includes upping the $10,000 queue fee. Also on the transmission front, regulators denied rate incentives for Nevada Hydro for its Lake Elsinore Advanced Pumped Storage facility. Nevada Hydro proposes to have the California Independent System Operator take over the $1.1 billion project. CAISO declined allowing the company full cost recovery in August 2007. The company petitioned CAISO for a lower level of cost recovery. FERC noted that because it may not be operated or managed by CAISO, it rejected the company’s request for financial incentives. Federal regulators also addressed a California issue related to the 2000-01 energy crisis. The commission opened a hearing into whether the lack of timely data filed by electricity sellers during that time “masked an accumulation of market power such that the market rates were unjust and unreasonable.” The docket is in response to the Ninth Circuit Court’s remand of Californa ex rel Lockyer v. FERC. The court found that the commission “erred when it said that it lacked authority to order remedies for violations of its reporting requirements,” according to the commission. Most of the financial settlements and issues that developed during the 2000-01 energy crisis have been resolved. However, California still maintains it is owed billions of dollars from energy suppliers and traders from that time. The crisis occurred after the state deregulated the market for electricity in 1996. Traders, most notably Enron, allegedly gamed the new market for excess profits. State utilities were unable to fund rising energy costs. One utility, Pacific Gas & Electric, declared bankruptcy. At the height of the crisis, the state Department of Water & Power was charged to take over buying power due to the lack of utilities’ creditworthiness

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Feds Address Renewable Transmission Queue

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