East Kentucky Power Cooperative, which on Nov. 4 asked the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission to be relieved of obligations to sign power contracts with certain QF projects, on Dec. 7 filed a supplemental notice with FERC that it has gotten a Dec. 2 request from the developer of an 80-MW solar project.
EKPC said it was contacted on Dec. 2 by a developer that is proposing to develop an 80-MW solar project in Harrison County, Kentucky, within EKPC’s service territory. It would interconnect into the Jacksonville Substation at Brentsville. That company, Bluebird Solar LLC, filed a Form 556 notice of self-certification of qualifying small power production facility (QF) status on Nov. 2, two days before EKPC’s application in this proceeding. On Dec. 5, EKPC provided the developer with a copy of that Nov. 4 application.
EKPC gave the contact address for Bluebird Solar as 7804-C Fairview Road #257, Charlotte, NC 28226.
EKPC is asking the commission through the Nov. 4 application to declare that the cooperative will no longer be required to enter into new contracts or obligations to purchase electric energy and/or capacity from qualifying cogeneration facilities or qualifying small power production facilities (QFs) with a net capacity of over 20 MW on a service territory-wide basis.
As a member of PJM Interconnection, EKPC said it has satisfied all of the criteria for termination of the requirement to purchase electric energy from QFs over 20 MW. As the commission has found, PJM provides market participants nondiscriminatory open access to transmission, operates an auction-based day-ahead and real-time wholesale energy market, and manages a wholesale market for long-term sales of capacity and energy. QFs in the PJM market have direct access to these competitive wholesale markets, EKPC noted.
