The Sierra Club and Natural Resources Defense Council have filed a petition with an appeals court to toss two recent FERC orders that granted SPP’s request to modify provisions for clean energy resources’ capacity accreditation.
The two organizations, represented by nonprofit advocate Earthjustice, filed the request with the D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals on Nov. 17.
At issue is FERC’s July approval of SPP’s tariff revisions to implement an effective load-carrying capability (ELCC) for wind, solar and storage resources, and a performance-based accreditation (PBA) methodology for conventional resources (ER24-1317). (See FERC Approves SPP’s ERAS Process, Accreditation.)
The Sierra Club and NRDC also are appealing FERC’s denial of a rehearing request for the order. The commission said in August that in the absence of FERC’s action in response to the request, the rehearing “may be deemed to have been denied.”
In approving SPP’s ELCC and PBA methodologies, FERC said the gird operator’s tariff change was a “new data-driven approach to resource accreditation.” Commissioners David Rosner and Judy Chang filed a joint concurrence, noting “numerous” parties raised several methodological concerns with SPP’s proposal.
“However, despite the concerns, commenters nonetheless appear to universally recognize that SPP’s proposal is an improvement over the status quo,” they wrote. “Given the growing urgency of the resource adequacy challenge in SPP, we are persuaded that the commission should accept this just and reasonable improvement.”
The RTO said in its filings that it will be able to more accurately measure generators’ reliability and ensure they are dispatched and compensated for their “real-world performance.”
“This gives utilities and grid operators better tools to plan for and maintain a reliable grid,” SPP said.
The environmental groups say SPP’s proposal “holds renewable energy sources to a significantly higher standard than fossil fuels” and doesn’t consider thermal generation’s “poor reliability during extreme weather.” They cited a report from the Union of Concerned Scientists that found thermal plants as “disproportionately vulnerable to failure” during recent winter storms.
“Power outages were avoided because SPP’s wind fleet significantly outperformed its expected value,” Sierra Club and NRDC said in a news release.
SPP spokesperson Seth Blomeley said staff are reviewing the appeal filing.
“We continue to have confidence in the merits of our [ELCC] plan,” he said.
Sierra Club Senior Attorney Greg Wannier said that “fair and accurate resource evaluation should be the minimum expectation for any grid operator.”
“Unfortunately, SPP decided instead to artificially prop up the value of coal and gas,” he said. “This double standard will force customers to pay more money for less reliable electric service and increases the risk of life-threatening power outages during the next heat wave or winter storm.”
“FERC has allowed SPP to put their thumb on the scale to artificially entrench fossil fuel generators at the expense of clean, reliable, renewable energy,” Earthjustice Senior Attorney Aaron Stemplewicz said. “We look forward to exposing FERC’s misguided approval in court.”
