FERC last week opened hearing procedures to determine the fairness of reactive power rates for an east central Illinois gas-fired generating plant.

The 195-MW Tilton Energy plant made an informational and rate schedule filing in April, spurred by a change in upstream ownership. The company did not propose a change to its current rate schedule, explaining that the plant “is being transferred completely intact” with no interruption of its reactive service. In the last decade, Tilton has changed hands from Dynegy to LS Power to current parent Rockland Capital.

While the commission accepted Tilton’s informational filing and unchanged rate schedule, it instigated settlement proceedings and set an Oct. 5 refund date, explaining that Tilton’s current reactive power capability may have degraded since FERC approved a $781,383 annual revenue requirement for the plant in 2010 (ER17-1428, EL17-79).

— Amanda Durish Cook