FERC confirms that co-ops can buy unlimited power from PURPA-qualifying facilities
The U.S. Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC)’s Thursday ruling clearly rejected Tri-State’s petition, stating:
Tri-State’s petition would effectively undo Delta-Montrose’s statutory obligation to purchase from QFs and correspondingly limit QFs from selling power to Delta-Montrose at negotiated rates.This ruling has two significant implications for rural electric cooperatives (co-ops), municipal utilities (munis), and the generation and transmission providers that serve those utilities (G&Ts).
—FERC, June 2016 Commission Meeting Summaries
- Distribution co-ops and municipal utilities are no longer constrained in their ability to source cost-competitive local power
- G&Ts need to embrace a distributed energy future
The FERC ruling has opened up a huge potential distributed renewable energy market. Renewable energy buyers and sellers both have a role to play in enabling this market to achieve its full potential.
