Wind Farm Company Loses Challenge to $102 Million in Costs (1)

Energy regulators acted reasonably when they signed off on a transmission organization placing more than $100 million in upgrade costs onto a wind farm developer seeking to connect to the power grid, a federal appeals court said.

Tenaska Clear Creek Wind LLC sued the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission for allowing Southwest Power Pool Inc.—the regional transmission organization—to assign the company the costs after it sought to connect a 31,000-acre wind farm to the power grid. The costs would pay for upgrades required on SPP’s system to accommodate Clear Creek’s project, but the developer said they’re too high after the organization ...