Xcel Power has extra to fret about than deteriorating photo voltaic economics for its $575 million megafarm deliberate in Becker, Minn.
The Minnesota Division of Commerce and the Minnesota Lawyer Basic’s Workplace say the mission is overpriced and wasn’t bid correctly, leaving ratepayers overpaying for solar energy.
Commerce and the AG’s Workplace have really helpful that the Minnesota Public Utilities Fee (PUC) reject the Sherco photo voltaic mission as at the moment structured.
The mission’s per-kilowatt-hour price “is dramatically increased than latest utility-scale photo voltaic tasks within the area,” the AG’s Workplace mentioned in a PUC submitting. “If the mission have been authorized, clients could be compelled to pay lots of of tens of millions of {dollars} extra over the lifetime of the mission than if Xcel had as a substitute procured competitively priced photo voltaic era.”
Xcel rejects these conclusions.
“We expect our mission has all the time been a well-priced mission for our clients and delivers nice worth for the power transition,” mentioned Christopher Clark, the corporate’s president for Minnesota and the Dakotas. “We hope that as we offer extra data to the Division of Commerce and the lawyer basic that they may reassess.”
The Sherco photo voltaic mission would assist substitute a few of the energy misplaced when Xcel closes its three large coal mills in Becker, which is able to happen between 2023 and 2030.
The Commerce Division and the Lawyer Basic’s Workplace mentioned Xcel’s bidding course of yielded solely three bids, together with the corporate’s personal. The opposite two have been tossed as a result of they didn’t meet bidding necessities.
“Xcel’s RFP [request for proposal] was poorly designed, creating pointless limits which decreased the variety of bids acquired and consequently doubtless inflated the general worth,” the Commerce Division concluded.
The Lawyer Basic’s Workplace mentioned Xcel “undermined” the aggressive course of by proscribing the mission’s location to the Sherco website; and by proscribing the mission’s possession to the corporate itself.
The Sherco mission would make the most of Xcel’s grid interconnection rights and infrastructure in Becker — a bonus, the corporate says. With these hyperlinks in place, the mission would keep away from lengthy and doubtlessly pricey delays that always include connecting to the regional grid.
And federal guidelines require Xcel to personal any mission that makes use of present grid interconnection rights at Sherco, the corporate mentioned.
“We have now useful transmission rights on the Sherco crops,” Clark mentioned. “We have to personal that mission.”
