FERC has dismissed as moot a complaint by several public interest organizations over SPP’s accreditation methodologies for thermal and renewable resources (EL24-96).

In a Dec. 18 ruling, the commission said its approval in July of SPP’s new resource accreditation framework rendered the complaint’s target “no longer effective.” (See FERC Approves SPP’s ERAS Process, Accreditation.)

The Sierra Club, Natural Resources Defense Council and the Sustainable FERC Project filed the complaint in April 2024 under sections 206 and 306 of the Federal Power Act. They charged the grid operator’s effective load-carrying capability methodology for renewable resources and performance-based accreditation methodology for conventional resources were unjust and unreasonable as well as unduly discriminatory or preferential.

At the time, SPP accredited thermal and other conventional resources based primarily on installed capacity. It accredited wind and solar resources based primarily on a given unit’s output during 60% of certain peak load hours and storage resources based on performance under a capability test.

The RTO filed tariff revisions in September 2024 to the proposed PBA methodology, adding fuel assurance incentives for conventional resources. FERC noted the public interest groups said the new accreditation methodologies “would completely replace the existing methodologies that are the target of this complaint.”