Judges to Weigh NextEra’s Refusal to Accommodate Power Line

NextEra Energy plans to ask an appeals court Tuesday to roll back a federal order requiring the company to upgrade equipment to accommodate a competitor’s $1 billion electric transmission line.

The oral arguments scheduled before the US Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit in Washington are only the latest plot point in a saga around the Avangrid transmission project, called the New England Clean Energy Connect project.

Avangrid argues NextEra is required, by open access transmission and interconnection rules under the Federal Power Act, to replace its circuit breaker at its Seabrook Station Nuclear Power Plant in New Hampshire. NextEra states it has no obligation to replace the circuit breaker and that it functions not as a transmission device but as a generation asset, which does not fall under the purview of US energy regulators.

Spokespeople for NextEra and Avangrid declined to comment.

New England’s regional grid operator says the circuit breaker replacement is necessary before Avangrid’s line can become operational.

The $1 billion, 145-mile-long line proposes to carry 1,200 megawatts of Quebec-produced hydropower to Massachusetts customers, promising to lower costs and meet state clean energy goals.

Maine voters rejected the project in a highly unusual referendum in November 2021, but two legal rulings in the state created a pathway for the project to get back on track.

The dispute with NextEra was a separate hurdle for Avangrid.

The company filed a complaint at the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission in October 2020, after months of talks with NextEra broke down. The subsidiary of Spanish energy giant Iberdrola had initially hoped NextEra would complete the upgrade during the Seabrook plant’s 2021 refueling outage.

It wasn’t until February 2023 that the commission sided with Avangrid.

NextEra is required by its grid interconnection agreement and good utility practice—a set of industry standards—to replace the circuit breaker because it’s needed for reliable operation, the commission ruled.

“Seabrook would not be exercising reasonable judgment to operate the breaker from the moment Avangrid is energized because it would risk the breaker being overdutied,” the commission’s order stated.

Energy analysts have framed the case as being more than just a one-off disagreement over a piece of power equipment.

The Biden administration and electric grid experts say significantly more long-range transmission is needed to connect more wind, solar, and other zero-emission energy sources to population centers. New England in particular is experiencing a wave of offshore wind projects jostling for places to plug into the onshore grid—places similar to NextEra’s Seabrook station.

If certain power plants can effectively block or slow-walk transmission that imports clean energy from other areas, that could slow the push to decarbonize the power grid.

The situation in New England is a “harbinger of a larger problem,” Massachusetts Attorney General Maura Healey (D) told the commission last October.

The fact that “a direct competitor of NECEC can thwart a major transmission project simply by refusing to negotiate and agree to commercially reasonable terms manifests a weakness in the interconnection process that must be addressed,” Healey wrote.

The case will be heard by Judges Patricia A. Millett, Gregory G. Katsas, and Neomi Rao. Jenner & Block LLP represents NextEra, Latham & Watkins LLP represents Avangrid, and FERC represents itself.

The case is NextEra Energy Res. v. FERC, D.C. Cir., No. 23-01094, oral arguments 2/6/24.