Qualifying

Responding to concerns voiced by several Texas qualifying facilities (QFs), FERC this week affirmed that any company that meets the definition of electric utility under the Public Utility Regulatory Policies Act of 1978 (PURPA) following restructuring in the Lone Star state will continue to have an obligation to purchase power from QFs.

California is shooting to have all of its qualifying facility (QF) power generation plants back online within the next eight to 10 days, a move that will help ease California’s energy crunch, but won’t solve it completely, state officials told a U.S. House hearing Thursday.

A group representing qualifying facility (QF) generators last week called on FERC to immediately order California’s two troubled investor-owned utilities to provide “interconnection, scheduling, transmission and related services” to QF plants in California, and to “cease and desist” from carrying out actions that are blocking sales of QF power.

As tempers continued to flare between utilities, power marketers and qualifying facility generators in California, the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission issued a series of orders in an attempt to douse some of the long-simmering disputes in the state’s crippled wholesale power markets. California power marketers and suppliers prevailed on the key creditworthy and so-called “chargeback” issues, while the California Power Exchange (Cal-PX), the California Independent System Operator (Cal-ISO) and the state’s two troubled investor-owned utilities suffered significant blows.

A group representing qualifying facility (QF) generators has called on FERC to immediately order California’s two troubled investor-owned utilities to provide “interconnection, scheduling, transmission and related services” to QF plants in California, and to “cease and desist” from carrying out actions that are blocking sales of QF power.

FERC’s recent waivers to allow qualifying facilities (QFs) in California to sell output that isn’t earmarked for the state’s investor-owned utilities (IOUs) to third parties have run into a snag in the state, says a Daggett, CA-based solar electric generator.

FERC’s recent waivers to allow qualifying facilities (QFs) in California to sell output that isn’t earmarked for the state’s investor-owned utilities (IOUs) to third parties have run into a snag in the state, says a Daggett, CA-based solar electric generator

Pacific Gas and Electric Co. and California’s independent powerproducers with qualifying facility (QF) contracts have cut a dealto free up excess power from the merchant generators to help handledemand spikes anticipated during this summer’s heat waves. TheCalifornia Independent Energy Producers (IEP) expect to have anadvice letter filing with state regulators by the end or April tofree up as much as 1,000 MW of power in the summer. Thin ancillaryservices supplies last summer caused record price spikes.