By Michael Brooks
Two of the world’s largest wind farms have joined a complaint against Northern Indiana Public Service Co., asking the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission to cut the $35.8 million bill the utility assessed them and others in connection with transmission upgrades needed to reduce congestion that has caused frequent curtailments.
NIPSCO charged Fowler Ridge, Meadow Lake and seven other wind farms $50.4 million to build the upgrades and an additional $35.8 million to operate them over 35 years.
FERC ruled Dec. 8 that the 1.71 multiplier NIPSCO used to calculate the operating costs is too high. But it denied a request by the original complainant, E.ON Climate and Renewables North America, to eliminate it entirely. Instead, it directed NIPSCO and E.ON to enter settlement proceedings to determine a fairer rate (EL14-66).
The owners of the Fowler Ridge and Meadow Lake wind farms, located in western Indiana, filed their complaint last week (EL15-34), saying they wanted to ensure they would share in any refunds resulting from the resolution of the E.ON case.
Fowler Ridge and Meadow Lake companies were part of a group of Indiana wind farm owners that negotiated last year with NIPSCO a transmission upgrade agreement to alleviate congestion on the utility’s system.
E.ON estimated its Pioneer Trail and Settlers Trail wind farms, with 300 MW of combined capacity, lost between $9.8 million and $11.7 million in 2013 when grid operators forced them to curtail their output due to congestion.
Because MISO’s Tariff does not include a procedure for calculating the cost of transmission upgrades that require customer funding, the RTO instructed the wind companies to deal with NIPSCO directly.
E.ON said it immediately objected to the operating cost multiplier but that both MISO and NIPSCO refused to file the agreement on an unexecuted basis — an action that would have allowed FERC to rule on it before it went into effect. NIPSCO also refused to go through with the upgrades unless E.ON and the other companies signed the agreement and paid the total cost upfront, E.ON said.
“[G]iven the continuing curtailments, the only avenue was to agree to the terms of the proposed” agreement and hope that FERC would find it unjust once it was filed in February 2014, E.On said. FERC accepted the agreement in late March, and E.ON filed its complaint in June.
The 600-MW Fowler Ridge, jointly owned by BP Wind Energy North America and Dominion Resources, and the 526-MW Meadow Lake, owned by EDP Renewables North America, rank among the largest wind farms in installed capacity. Collectively they make up 73% of Indiana’s total wind capacity, according the U.S. Department of Energy.
