Today was a big day for the solar power industry at the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC). In its monthly open meeting, FERC announced two decisions that significantly impact the industry — one involving PURPA and the other related to PJM’s Minimum Offer Price Rule (MOPR). First, FERC reversed its Broadview Solar decision issued in … Continue Reading
Yesterday, the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) issued Order No. 872 and implemented the largest overhaul to FERC’s regulations affecting Qualifying Facilities (QFs) in more than a decade. The order itself is 491 pages in length and there remain plenty of details to unpack in its implementation (including future proceedings to come at the FERC … Continue Reading
For the first time in almost 30 years, the Michigan Public Service Commission (MPSC) is overhauling its implementation of PURPA. The last time the MPSC evaluated Consumers Energy Company’s (Consumers) avoided cost methodology, the Midcontinent Independent System Operator (MISO) had not been created and the generation market was vastly different than it is today. The … Continue Reading
The Utah Public Service Commission (PSC) issued its decision today on PacifiCorp’s request to shorten the maximum term of power purchase agreements (PPAs) with qualifying facilities (QFs) from 20 years to three years. The PSC agreed to reduce the maximum term from 20 to 15 years, concluding: “We believe a 15-year term strikes the appropriate … Continue Reading
Qualifying facility interconnection conversions can be an effective way to bypass the interconnection queue, even during a repower. But there are groundrules to a conversion, and today FERC applied those rules and determined that qualifying facility owners may not be entitled to as much converted capacity as they might think.… Continue Reading
In agreeing to dismiss an historic effort to enforce PURPA, the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission left a lump of coal for Qualifying Facility wind developers in Idaho. The agreement represents an apparent policy change at FERC, as well as a complete win for the Idaho PUC.… Continue Reading
The Idaho Public Utilities Commission (PUC) has issued a straw man proposal that lays out plans to revise the surrogate avoided resource (SAR) methodology used to calculate avoided cost rates for wind generators. The "avoided cost" is the price paid to Qualifying Facilities that are selling power to Idaho utilities under the Public Utility Regulatory … Continue Reading
