
The Missouri Public Service Commission on Oct. 5 approved a July 22 application from Transource Missouri LLC for a Certificate of Convenience and Necessity (CCN) on facilities needed to interconnect the 200-MW Osborn Wind Energy LLC project of NextEra Energy (NYSE: NEE).
A wholly-owned subsidiary of Transource Energy LLC, Transource Missouri is a transmission-owning entity. Transource Missouri constructs, finances, owns, operates and maintains regional transmission facilities that provide electric transmission service through the Southwest Power Pool (SPP).
Transource Missouri’s requested CCN will authorize it to own, operate, and maintain a switch station in DeKalb County, Missouri, that will connect the Osborn Wind Energy Center with Transource Missouri’s Nebraska City-Mullin Creek-Sibley transmission line. Along with its application, Transource Missouri filed a request for waiver of certain regulations and a motion for expedited treatment, asking that the application be approved within 90 days.
Said the Oct. 5 PSC order: “Transource Missouri, LLC is granted permission, approval, and a certificate of convenience and necessity to own, operate, and maintain a switch station located in DeKalb County, Missouri, as more particularly described in its application and Staff’s recommendation.”
Incidentally, Osborn Wind Energy LLC on July 27 asked the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission for authorization to make market-based sales of energy, capacity and certain ancillary services under a market-based rate tariff. Osborn Wind said it will own, control and operate a wind generating facility with a nameplate capacity of approximately 200.9 MW located in DeKalb County, Missouri, within the Southwest Power Pool BAA. Applicant is party to a generator interconnection agreement with SPP and Transource Missouri. It has submitted a notice of self-certification as an exempt wholesale generator to the commission.
Osborn Wind’s capacity is fully committed on a firm basis through two 20-year contracts with Kansas City Power and Light and KCP&L Greater Missouri Operations, each contract with an initial term ending in 2036. The facility may start producing test energy as early as October or November 2016, the application said.