{"id":14016,"date":"2012-12-18T19:23:50","date_gmt":"2012-12-19T02:23:50","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/idaho\/?p=14016"},"modified":"2012-12-19T09:43:02","modified_gmt":"2012-12-19T16:43:02","slug":"existing-wind-projects-fare-well-under-public-utilities-commission-ruling-but-theres-a-catch","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/idaho\/2012\/12\/18\/existing-wind-projects-fare-well-under-public-utilities-commission-ruling-but-theres-a-catch\/","title":{"rendered":"Existing Wind Projects Fare Well Under Public Utilities Commission Ruling, But There’s A Catch"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Molly Messick \/ StateImpact Idaho<\/p>

In four years, 30 wind farms were approved in Idaho. Before that boom, the state had just one.<\/p><\/div>\n

The Idaho Public Utilities Commission today handed a key victory to wind developers currently operating in the state, but it did so while imposing an indirect limit on the amount of wind development Idaho is likely to see in the near future.<\/p>\n

“There are very different implications for existing versus new wind developers,” the Idaho Conservation League’s Ben Otto said after reviewing the PUC’s decision.\u00a0 <\/p>\n

The ruling is about more than the wind industry.\u00a0 It has implications for many different kinds of renewable power projects that sell power to the state’s regulated utilities.\u00a0 But it was the extraordinary pace of wind development<\/a> that led Idaho’s utilities — chiefly Idaho Power — to petition the PUC to reevaluate some of its existing rules.\u00a0 The utilities argued the sudden proliferation of wind farms in the state would result in higher electricity prices for Idaho customers.<\/p>\n\n

In one part of its decision<\/a>, the Public Utilities Commission gives the wind industry an unadulterated win.\u00a0 It affirms that utilities must honor their obligations to purchase power from wind farms, even if those wind farms are producing a great deal of power at times when customer demand is light.\u00a0 The state’s utilities had proposed to curtail generation from some wind projects at times of low demand.<\/p>\n

“For existing wind projects, the threat of curtailment has been lifted, and that’s got to be a real relief for them,” observes Peter Richardson, a Boise attorney who represents many wind developers.<\/p>\n

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