The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission sided with Avangrid Inc. in a dispute over whether a NextEra Energy Inc. subsidiary should be required to upgrade a circuit breaker at its Seabrook nuclear plant to accommodate the New England Clean Energy Connect transmission project.
In a Feb. 1 order, FERC found that the plant's majority owner, NextEra Energy Resources LLC, must replace the circuit breaker and rejected the company's effort to recoup approximately $5.6 million in opportunity costs from Avangrid during a 10-day planned outage for the 1,251-MW Seabrook facility located in Rockingham County, N.H.
The 145-mile, 320-kV Clean Energy Connect line, which would carry electricity produced by Hydro-Québec to the New England region, has a proposed in-service date of December 2024, though the project has faced stiff opposition in Maine. Seabrook's next planned outage is scheduled for the fall of 2024. Avangrid affiliates NECEC Transmission LLC and Maine utility Central Maine Power Co. are the transmission project's developers. Avangrid is ultimately owned by Iberdrola SA.
The dispute dates back to October 2020 when Avangrid and NextEra launched competing proceedings at FERC after a system impact study conducted by ISO New England, the region's grid operator, concluded that the 1,200-MW transmission project would overload a circuit breaker at the Seabrook plant.
Specifically, the ISO-NE study found that the transmission line would cause the circuit breaker to operate at 101.2% of its capability, an increase from 99.6% of its capacity prior to the project. According to an amended engineering and procurement agreement (ER22-2807) FERC approved in October 2022, the estimated cost for procurement and design of a new breaker is about $12.6 million.
In a petition for a declaratory order (EL21-3), NextEra asked FERC to find that Seabrook is not required to incur a financial loss to upgrade the circuit breaker. Avangrid filed a separate complaint (EL21-6) accusing NextEra of illegally attempting to delay the replacement project while increasing its costs.
FERC sides with transmission developer
FERC on Feb. 1 partially granted Avangrid's complaint and rejected NextEra's petition for a declaratory order.
As an initial matter, FERC rejected Avangrid's claims that NextEra should be required to replace the circuit breaker under the interconnection obligations set out in the ISO-NE's tariff. The circuit breaker is not covered by the ISO-NE's transmission interconnection rules because it is a component of the generation facility, FERC explained.
Nevertheless, FERC directed NextEra to replace the circuit breaker in accordance with Seabrook's large generator interconnection agreement and "good utility practice," as defined by the ISO-NE.
The generator interconnection agreement "does not permit Seabrook to refuse to replace the breaker when replacement is needed for reliable operation of the Seabrook Station," FERC said. The commission noted that subsequent system impact studies performed by the ISO-NE have all assumed the circuit breaker will need to be replaced regardless.
"The record indicates that the circuit breaker at issue here already is operating close to its maximum capability such that if the breaker is not replaced and there are additional interconnection customers, ISO-NE is concerned that system reliability will be negatively impacted," FERC said.
FERC also agreed with Avangrid that NextEra should not recover opportunity and legal costs related to the circuit breaker's replacement.
"Seabrook does not present evidence convincing us that it would be prevented from operating successfully or maintaining financial integrity if it replaced its breaker without receiving opportunity costs from Avangrid," FERC said. "Moreover, Avangrid will pay for the direct costs of the breaker replacement, and merchant sellers like Seabrook are not guaranteed profits, particularly when they are not operating due, for example, to maintenance activities required by their" large generator interconnection agreements.
Remaining legal hurdles
ClearView Energy Partners LLC called FERC's Feb. 1 order "the third consecutive 'win' for Avangrid" and the Clean Energy Connect project following two "constructive rulings" from the Maine Supreme Judicial Court in 2022. In the latter of those rulings, the court in December 2022 overturned a lower court's ruling that invalidated a key public lands lease for the project.
Avangrid is now headed for a trial, set to begin in April, before the Maine Business and Consumer Court in a legal challenge to a voter-approved ballot initiative aimed at blocking the transmission line. The company is arguing that the referendum violates multiple legal principles, including the vested rights of a property owner who has invested in a project based on the laws in place at that time.
"Although the legal fight over Maine's 'Question 1' citizen initiative continues with oral argument in April, the commission's action on the complaint helps put [the transmission line] on the path to overcoming another important hurdle," ClearView said in a Feb. 2 note to clients.
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