By Rory D. Sweeney

Despite complaints from PJM’s Independent Market Monitor, FERC last week approved a settlement in a yearslong fight over how much revenue Virginia Electric and Power Co. should receive for its reactive energy supply fleet.

The commission’s ruling said “the IMM’s concerns are too attenuated to outweigh the bargained-for benefits of the settlement, which include rate certainty and reduced litigation costs” (EL16-89, EL17-40, ER06-554, ER17-512).

The settlement between VEPCO, North Carolina Electric Membership Corp., Old Dominion Electric Cooperative and Northern Virginia Electric Cooperative came after FERC initiated a review in July 2016 of VEPCO’s rates for reactive services under Section 206 of the Federal Power Act.

The settlement maintains VEPCO’s fleetwide annual revenue requirement of $27.5 million but maintains a list compiling the revenue requirements for each generating unit totaling nearly $40 million. When VEPCO files to retire a unit, it will remove the unit’s associated revenue from the compiled list. However, its fleetwide revenue requirement will remain the same, and the other parties agreed not to contest the filing until the compiled list totals less than $27.5 million.

The Monitor argued that VEPCO, a Dominion Energy subsidiary, should have to itemize how much of the $27.5 million is attributable to individual units each year. The Monitor said the information would help with calculating several of the plants’ market positions, including their cost-based offers, but FERC dismissed the requests.

In a separate case, FERC also approved a settlement in the reactive rate requirements for Talen Energy’s West Deptford facility (EL16-100, ER14-1193).