North Dakota’s Public Service Commission has filed to intervene in a case before the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission, that PSC members say could potentially shut down several of Basin Electric’s power plants.
The case originally involved a dispute between Basin and McKenzie Electric Power Cooperative. McKenzie has claimed Basin has overcharged McKenzie customers.
PSC Chairman Randy Christmann said the Sierra Club has already intervened, and drug all of Basin’s generation into the case. Christmann said the Sierra Club wants FERC to deny Basin any monetary recovery. He said the result could be closing of much of Basin’s generation fleet.
"In their (Basin's) filing, they are talking about the potential of default, of bankruptcy, and the loss of safe, reliable and affordable power," said Christmann. "This is frightening."
Commissioner Julie Fedorchak said the latest report from the North American Reliability Corporation shows two-thirds of the country does not have enough power to meet demand, if intermittent resources – such as wind – are producing at low levels.
"They (FERC) could be jeopardizing 2500 megawatts of dispatchable baseload power," Fedorchak said. "There just isn't that kind of access available anywhere in this country right now, to even consider shutting that much power down."
Commission members said Basin provides generation to other states, through the regional transmission organizations – the Southwest Power Pool and the Midwest Independent System Operator.
