Dive Brief:

• An agreement settling a suit filed by the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission against the Idaho Public Utilities has been accepted by a district court.
• Also, the Idaho Supreme Court upheld the PUC's decision to reject a wind power purchase agreement from a “qualifying facility,” under the Public Utility Regulatory Policies Act (PURPA).

Dive Insight:

In regions without competitive markets, PURPA requires utilities to enter into power purchase agreements with qualifying facilities, which can be no bigger than 80 MW. The contracts are based on rate formulas established by each state regulatory commission. In the last five years, Idaho saw rapid wind development under PURPA. Idaho Power and other utilities pushed back, and the PUC has generally ruled against small developers in a series of recent decisions.

Small developers don't expect much action in Idaho. “The lofty goals in PURPA of energy independence, market discipline and lower costs competitive power producers bring to the market are now more at risk,” according to Peter Richardson, an attorney representing small developers. “That said, the fact remains that FERC did fire a shot across the bow of the Idaho PUC. That commission has the dubious distinction of being the only state PUC to ever be sued by FERC over implementation of PURPA.”