Alliant

A settlement has been reached in a simmering dispute between Wisconsin’s two major private-sector utility ownership groups over a proposed natural gas-fired 650 MW generation plant slated for Beloit, WI.

A settlement was announced Monday among federal authorities, the Sierra Club and Madison, WI-based Alliant Energy Corp.’s Wisconsin Power and Light (WPL) utility that eventually may result in replacing 270 MW of coal-fired electric generation with natural gas-fired units.

Alliant Energy Corp. subsidiary Interstate Power and Light Co. (IP&L) said it will request a rate hike from the Iowa Utilities Board (IUB) in mid-April for its natural gas services in the state. The increase would recover the costs of improvements IP&L has made to its natural gas delivery system infrastructure in Iowa over the last three years.

Alliant Energy’s Wisconsin Power and Light (WPL) has urged the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission to “act expeditiously” in its rehearing of ANR Pipeline Co.’s application for its $42.1 million WestLeg pipeline expansion (see Daily GPI, June 5). WPL said the new gas transportation capacity is desperately needed to fuel new power generation at the Riverside Energy Center that is “crucial to electric reliability in the state.” FERC issued an order on Aug. 6 granting rehearing of the application at the request of ANR.