FERC Sides for Big Wind over Biodiversity

FERC Finds for Wind Generators in BPA Curtailment Dispute :: POWER Magazine:

The dispute stemmed from high seasonal river flows and hydro generation this summer that had prompted the BPA to temporarily limit output from nonhydropower resources—including wind. The BPA said it was forced to make that decision because it would “safeguard protected fish and assure reliable energy delivery without shifting extra costs to BPA electric customers.” But the decision made by the agency—which also operates and maintains about three-fourths of the high-voltage transmission in a service territory that includes Idaho, Oregon, Washington, western Montana, and small parts of eastern Montana, California, Nevada, Utah, and Wyoming—was “wrongheaded,” the wind industry said, claiming it could cost wind companies tens of millions of dollars.

The group of wind generation owners filed a complaint with FERC in June 2011, protesting the BPA’s “discriminatory management” of access to its transmission system to favor its own generation.

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