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Recently in Public Power Current
The Massachusetts Municipal Wholesale Electric Company reported that it recently paid its bondholders $45 million in principal and nearly $1 million in interest, bringing the outstanding debt on MMWEC’s power supply projects down to $10.68 million.
The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission rejected revisions that the Southwest Power Pool proposed earlier this year to its open access transmission tariff, and asked the regional transmission organization to revise its proposal.
Citing a recent court decision involving the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission, the New York State Department of Environmental Conservation is arguing that FERC’s prior approval of a pipeline project that will feed natural gas to a new power plant was flawed because the commission “failed to consider or quantify” the indirect effect of downstream greenhouse gas emissions that will result from burning the natural gas that the project will transport to the power plant.
The House Energy and Commerce Committee’s Subcommittee on Energy in September will hold hearings that will explore potential revisions to the Public Utility Regulatory Policies Act (PURPA), consider electric reliability issues and review and the Department of Energy’s recently released staff report on electric markets and reliability.
The Oregon Public Utility Commission is reviewing proposals by PacifiCorp and Portland General Electric for spending close to $13 million on electric vehicle programs.
The New Jersey Board of Public Utilities has accepted a consultant’s recommendations and plans to set up a stakeholder process to solicit comments and input to assist it in developing electric vehicle infrastructure policies for the state’s electric distribution utilities.
Michigan’s Lansing Board of Water and Light and groSolar on Aug. 29 announced the start of construction of a utility-scale solar project in Michigan.
Georgia Power, a subsidiary of investor-owned Southern Company, on Aug. 31 filed a recommendation with the Georgia Public Service Commission to continue construction of the Vogtle nuclear expansion near Augusta, Ga.