FERC Filings
MOTION OF EPSA FOR LEAVE TO INTERVENE, SKYGEN ENERGY
II. PROTEST
On May 18, 2000, SkyGen filed this complaint against Southern, asking the Commission to enforce Southern's obligation under its Open Access Transmission Tariff (OATT) to provide firm point-to-point transmission service to move 235 megawatts of power from SkyGen's Santa Rosa Facility to the Tennessee Valley Authority Control Area. This dispute arises from SkyGen's efforts to interconnect its Santa Rosa Facility and obtain transmission service to sell the output of that facility.
The allegations made by SkyGen should be considered carefully. At a minimum, the allegations suggest that Southern acted in an unprofessional and irresponsible manner. Southern appears to have failed to exercise even a modicum of due diligence or engage in reasonable utility practice in assessing the deliverability of the SkyGen facility at the time the interconnection agreement was negotiated and signed. Clearly, there was no "meeting of the minds" as to what SkyGen obtained by signing an interconnection agreement. The Commission should certainly investigate whether Southern engaged in discriminatory conduct favoring its own generation to the detriment of SkyGen's.
If the Commission finds that Southern acted in a manner that is unlawful and discriminatory, the Commission must clearly and unequivocally penalize Southern's behavior and set an example for the entire industry. Unfair and discriminatory behavior with respect to interconnection and transmission services cannot be tolerated and the Commission should send a strong signal that other transmission providers cannot engage in discriminatory conduct.
The mere fact that SkyGen is forced to spend time and money to litigate this dispute points out the need for truly independent staff to perform interconnection studies and to develop and enforce queuing procedures today. Utilities that are self-building "merchant" projects in their own service territory should not be permitted to secretly evaluate, study and queue competitor projects. EPSA urges the Commission to adopt the principles set out in its "Bill of Rights for New Generators." Without clear policies and rules, enforced by the Commission, the implementation of workably competitive generation markets will be stalled by incumbents.
Southern's behavior is also evidence of why there must be a standardized interconnection process imposed by the Commission. Robust competitive generation markets will not develop to their full potential as long as the Commission allows transmission providers to offer piecemeal, non-standardized interconnection agreements and procedures. As happened here, incumbent transmission providers cannot be permitted to work behind the scenes to install their own generation when that generation unfairly displaces and stalls third-party merchant generation activity interested in their service territory.
EPSA also endorses SkyGen's request for Fast Track treatment of its complaint. In a competitive marketplace, timely resolution of commercial disputes is critical. As a merchant project developer, SkyGen has assumed all risk associated with developing the Santa Rosa Facility, making a large investment in that project. To preserve its construction schedule, SkyGen needs to know that it is entitled to and will receive the transmission service requested from Southern. A protracted litigation procedure will accomplish the same devastating result as Southern's denial of transmission service.