A FERC-approved waiver of MISO’s commercial operation deadlines for an Arkansas solar farm is a microcosm of the footprint’s struggle to overcome supply chain issues to bring new resources online.
FERC on April 30 approved EDP Renewables’ request to extend the final COD for its Crooked Lake solar farm from May 1 to Aug. 1 (ER24-1402). EDP said supply chain issues have dogged the project in the northeast corner of Arkansas.
In MISO, a developer’s interconnection agreement can be terminated if the new generator fails to achieve commercial operation three years after it originally told the RTO it would be operating for profit. MISO is currently reworking the COD policy in its interconnection procedures after becoming aware of several new generation projects held up by supply chain complications. (See MISO to Relax Commercial Operation Deadlines in Interconnection Queue.)
EDP began developing the 175-MW solar farm in 2016 and signed a generator interconnection agreement with MISO and transmission owner Entergy Arkansas in 2018. It began construction on Crooked Lake at the end of 2022.
The company said Crooked Lake was impeded by a slower-than-expected delivery of the control building for its high-voltage substation when the project was nearly finished. The company said despite it and its vendor’s best efforts, the building arrived too late to meet its construction schedule. EDP said that “extended time frames for procurement of control building components, such as relay panels, automatic transfer switches and Cisco communications equipment, had a cascading effect” that resulted in a three-month delay.
EDP said a waiver of the COD would allow it to energize the solar farm “without forfeiting … interconnection service, completed network upgrades or substantial investment.”
FERC said EDP acted in good faith to seek the limited waiver, which won’t harm third parties.
MISO late last year reported that it is sitting on about 50 GW in generation projects that have earned stamps of approval to connect to the system but aren’t completed because of supply chain delays. (See MISO: Reliability Risk Upped by 49 GW in Approved but Unbuilt Generation.)
