FERC blocks effort to force changes at Duke Energy

OREANDA-NEWS. A North Carolina environmental group has been unsuccessful in its effort to push Duke Energy to join a regional transmission organization and drop plans to build new generating capacity.

The North Carolina Waste Awareness and Reduction Network had filed a complaint with the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) arguing Duke's plans to build about 8GW of gas and nuclear capacity over the next dozen years were causing unjust and unreasonable rates.

The non-profit group said the vertically integrated utility's reserve margins were "excessive" and wanted the commission to fund a study reviewing the potential benefits of Duke joining a regional transmission organization. FERC funded such a study six years ago for Entergy, a move that preceded its eventual decision to join the Midcontinent Independent System Operator.

But FERC yesterday rejected the complaint and said it failed to show that Duke's construction plans, reserve margins and other practices were unreasonable. The complaint did not provide "persuasive evidence" that a reasonable utility manager would not have built and acquired the same types of generating resources, the commission said.

The complaint also argued that Duke was not implementing FERC's Order 1000 regional transmission rulemaking by not interconnecting with neighboring utilities. The commission dismissed this argument because it failed to point to any part of that order requiring utilities to connect with nearby utilities.

North Carolina utilities commission chairman Edward Finley yesterday said Duke during the 2014-15 winter had a "difficult time" serving load, potentially undercutting the group's arguments that the utility had excessive reserve margins. He spoke at a meeting of the National Energy Marketers Association in Washington, DC.