By Tom Kleckner

FERC last week rejected Entergy Texas’ attempt to terminate a power purchase agreement with qualifying facilities at Goodyear Tire & Rubber’s Beaumont chemical plant (EL16-105).

Goodyear filed a complaint with the commission in August, alleging that Entergy Texas’ plan to terminate its PPA with the tire company’s QFs in Southeast Texas violated the utility’s obligation to purchase energy and capacity in accordance with the Public Utility Regulatory Policies Act of 1978.

Entergy contended it had the right to cancel the PPA based on FERC’s January order that terminated the utility’s obligation to purchase from QFs larger than 20 MW in MISO. (See FERC: Entergy not Required to Buy from Large QFs.)

Goodyear’s Beaumont/West QF was self-certified in 1987 with a net capacity of 13 MW. Its Beaumont/East QF was self-certified in 1999 with a net capacity of 18.8 MW.

Entergy argued that the two QFs should be considered as one. It noted that the QFs are located less than a half-mile apart on the same site and that their energy “is commingled behind the meter.”

Goodyear contended that because it had self-certified two cogeneration plants each smaller than 20 MW, the January order did not affect Entergy’s obligation.

The commission agreed. It said its January order concluded that “a QF’s size for purposes of being relieved of the mandatory purchase obligation is determined by its certified size.”

The commission’s January order was based on a 2006 ruling, which said that QFs with net capacity above 20 MW were presumed to have “nondiscriminatory access” to wholesale markets in RTOs such as MISO.