A solar industry trade group challenged federal regulators' ruling that disqualified a facility from receiving payments under the Public Utility Regulatory Policies Act (PURPA).
FERC issued a final rule on PURPA that does not address the 40 years of precedent that says a facility's eligibility under PURPA should be set by net capacity, and because of this SEIA said the commission is in violation of the Administrative Procedure Act (APA) and guilty of an "abuse of discretion."
Focus on the 42-year-old law has increased over the past year since a Notice of Proposed Rulemaking (NOPR) was issued by FERC on it.
"Broadview Solar's docket was open before the Commission issued the PURPA NOPR, but at no time during the course [of the] rulemaking proceeding did the Commission indicate it was considering revising its long-standing rule setting for determining a Qualifying Facility's maximum power production capability," said SEIA.
In the Broadview case, the developer updated its filing with the commission to reflect and upgrade to its facility: The solar arrays now has a 160 MW of gross capacity, up from an original 104.25 MW, though 80 MW remained as its net capacity.
Culled from CATHERINE MOREHOUSE.
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