FERC last week instituted proceedings to examine the reactive rate schedules of two MISO generating facilities: the 471-MW RockGen natural gas plant in Christiana, Wis., (ER13-1589) and the 555-MW Carville steam and gas cogeneration facility in southeastern Louisiana (ER18-554).

The commission opened a Section 206 proceeding in a new docket (EL18-51) to re-evaluate RockGen’s reactive rates as a result of parent company Calpine’s proposed acquisition by an investor group led by Energy Capital Partners. FERC had accepted RockGen’s $700,000 annual reactive service revenue requirement in 2013.

The owner of the Carville plant, LS Power Development, asked on Dec. 28 for an annual reactive power revenue requirement of more than $1.1 million.

FERC said Carville didn’t provide proper evidence for multiple factors behind its revenue requirement: “Several components of Carville’s revenue requirement are not adequately supported, including, but not limited to, Carville’s fixed [operations and maintenance] expenses included in the fixed charge rate, the Carville facility’s production plant cost components and the accessory electric equipment allocator. Additionally, Carville utilized an outdated federal tax rate and incorrectly applied … methodology in calculating the Carville facility’s balance of production plant cost,” the commission said in its Feb. 28 order.

— Amanda Durish Cook