The Oklahoma Attorney General and the director of the Oklahoma Corporation Commission’s Public Utility Division stated in a regulatory filing overdue Monday they continue to be against Public Service Co. Of Oklahoma’s request to attain preapproval to recover charges to build the Wind Catcher Connection mission.
However, Attorney General Mike Hunter and Brandy Wreath, director of the software division, did encompass a list of prerequisites they could comply with as a part of the submitting, requesting the fee’s elected individuals to require the ones as a part of any deal in which the software is granted the preapproval it seeks.
Hunter said his intention remains to assure Oklahomans are protected from capacity monetary harm.
“Our role has been clear from the start … This project does no longer meet the necessities for preapproval and fee recovery,” Hunter said in a release issued with the aid of his workplace after the filing became made.
As for the proposed conditions, Hunter said they could “add necessary provisions to safeguard clients by protecting the innocent from exorbitant charges and could give money again … If warranted, no matter the challenge’s overall performance.
“We need to make sure the potential burden that includes this assignment isn’t always located on the backs of hardworking Oklahomans,” he continued.
Monday’s filing comes less than three weeks after the utility introduced it had reached a proposed settlement in the case with the Oklahoma Industrial Energy Consumers organization — a frequent and active interested birthday party in electric software-associated instances that cross before the fee.
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In that proposed settlement, the software said it had agreed to cap charges at 103 percentage, or $1.399 billion.
The filing by means of the attorney popular and public application division, alternatively, asks for PSO’s Wind Catcher Connection costs to be capped at a hundred percent, or $1.36 billion.
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There additionally in all likelihood are other differences among conditions included as a part of the lawyer preferred and public software department’s proposed agreement, as opposed to those blanketed within the proposed agreement the application reached with the Oklahoma Industrial Energy Consumers company.
These contain:
• Operational and renovation expenses for Wind Catcher and an associated 360-mile-lengthy line that might deliver 600 megawatts of energy from the Panhandle wind farm to Tulsa’s west side and into PSO’s grid.
• Federal production tax credit and the way utility clients would be compensated for those.
• Net energy technology ensures.
• Off-machine energy income.
Hunter additionally requested that the utility paintings with northern Oklahoma landowners that potentially could be impacted through Wind Catcher Connection’s proposed power line to “make sure the concerns of every Oklahoman are heard, considered and addressed.”
“We will preserve paintings with (elected commissioners and the commission’s) public utility department to ensure consumer safety, even though this venture is going forward,” he stated.
PSO Spokesman Stan Whiteford stated utility officers had seen the filing made via the attorney trendy and commission’s application department workforce.
“We are disenchanted they hold to preserve that equal position — that they don’t see the value in what we assume is an inexpensive challenge.”
The Wind Catcher Connection venture involves a wind farm being advanced via Invenergy that, if built, could encompass 800 wind towers powered through 2.Five-megawatt wind turbines built by way of GE Renewable Energy. The farm’s footprint might cowl parts of two Oklahoma Panhandle counties.
PSO might very own 30 percent of the assignment, while its sister American Electric Power application, Southwestern Electric Power Co., might personal the rest. PSO and Southwestern are seeking preapproval of their prices to take part in the challenge earlier than various country regulatory bodies.
While PSO estimates its 545,000 customers might see a fee increase of about $ seventy-eight million in 2021 if fee recuperation has been authorized, it additionally continues that decrease strength charges and the federal wind production tax credit could offset that boom.
The organization also has said it believes its ratepayers would benefit during the 25-12 months lifestyles of the challenge because it forecasts wind energy would be lower priced than options for the duration of that time.
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