Yesterday, The Coalition of Eastside Neighborhoods for Sensible Energy and Citizens for a Sane Eastside Energy, et al, filed a complaint at FERC against Washington State utilities Puget Sound Energy, Seattle City Light, Bonneville Power Administration and ColumbiaGrid. The complaint alleges that the utilities violated the Federal Power Act, FERC Orders No. 1000, 890 and 2000, and contractual obligations that the respondents made with the Commission that incorporate the referenced Orders, as well as the terms of their respective Open Access Transmission Tariffs.
Whew! That's a mouthful, huh? In plain English, it looks like the complainants are accusing Puget Sound Energy of trying to permit and build a transmission project that was not developed in a plan by an independent grid operator (or a reasonable facsimile, since the Northwest doesn't have a traditional RTO/ISO).
ColumbiaGrid is supposed to be taking the place of a RTO for all the named respondent utilities, and according to the complaint, the utilities promised FERC that ColumbiaGrid would serve in a role to make the area Order 1000-compliant.
The complaint alleges that Puget Sound Energy developed its "Energize Eastside" project without proper load flow studies, no study of alternatives, no RFP to evaluate alternate proposals, and that ColumbiaGrid is an entity controlled by its member utilities, including Puget Sound Energy, and does not meet independence requirements for RTOs.
The complaint also alleges that the project is not the "local load flow" project it claims to be (to escape FERC jurisdiction) but also includes a new 1500MW transmission path to Canada that fulfills a decades-old agreement about shared hydro resources. The addition of the Canadian firm capacity also elevates the project to one that should be regionally allocated, and not charged 100% to local load in the Eastside neighborhoods, as Puget Sound Energy is attempting to do.
Sounds complicated, but the affidavit of J. Richard Lauckhart is a great read to get an easy handle on the problem here. These guys really did their homework on FERC process and policies, and provided evidence in the form of expert testimony. Well done!
Looking forward to seeing where this leads...
Whew! That's a mouthful, huh? In plain English, it looks like the complainants are accusing Puget Sound Energy of trying to permit and build a transmission project that was not developed in a plan by an independent grid operator (or a reasonable facsimile, since the Northwest doesn't have a traditional RTO/ISO).
ColumbiaGrid is supposed to be taking the place of a RTO for all the named respondent utilities, and according to the complaint, the utilities promised FERC that ColumbiaGrid would serve in a role to make the area Order 1000-compliant.
The complaint alleges that Puget Sound Energy developed its "Energize Eastside" project without proper load flow studies, no study of alternatives, no RFP to evaluate alternate proposals, and that ColumbiaGrid is an entity controlled by its member utilities, including Puget Sound Energy, and does not meet independence requirements for RTOs.
The complaint also alleges that the project is not the "local load flow" project it claims to be (to escape FERC jurisdiction) but also includes a new 1500MW transmission path to Canada that fulfills a decades-old agreement about shared hydro resources. The addition of the Canadian firm capacity also elevates the project to one that should be regionally allocated, and not charged 100% to local load in the Eastside neighborhoods, as Puget Sound Energy is attempting to do.
Sounds complicated, but the affidavit of J. Richard Lauckhart is a great read to get an easy handle on the problem here. These guys really did their homework on FERC process and policies, and provided evidence in the form of expert testimony. Well done!
Looking forward to seeing where this leads...
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