FERC last week approved Southwestern Public Service Co.’s request to terminate its obligation to enter into new power purchase contracts with qualifying cogeneration or small power-production facilities (QFs) with a net capacity greater than 20 MW (QM19-4).
The commission found that QFs greater than 20 MW within SPS’ service territory enjoy nondiscriminatory access to sell capacity and energy into wholesale markets, in this case, SPP’s Integrated Marketplace. FERC based its Jan. 31 decision on a 2008 order that determined SPP’s markets satisfy the requirement of the Public Utility Regulatory Polices Act of 1978 (PURPA) to give QFs nondiscriminatory access to a market.
FERC’s Order 688 in 2006 found that the nation’s commission-approved wholesale energy markets meet PURPA’s criteria for relief from the purchase obligation. It also established a rebuttable presumption that QFs greater than 20 MW have nondiscriminatory access to those markets.
The commission rejected complaints from renewable developers GlidePath Development and Leeward Renewable Energy that transmission constraints that existed in 2008 still persist today. SPS told FERC that it has invested $2.1 billion in transmission facilities subject to SPP’s Tariff and that the RTO’s transmission-owning members have invested $8.3 billion in facilities subject to the Tariff.
Xcel Energy filed the request with FERC on Sept. 5, 2019, on behalf of SPS, its subsidiary, and fellow SPP TO members Oklahoma Gas & Electric, Public Service Co. of Oklahoma and Southwestern Electric Power Co. The order is effective on that date.
— Tom Kleckner
