The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission denied Nevada Hydro Co. Inc.'s application to build the proposed 500-MW Lake Elsinore Advanced Pumped Storage (LEAPS) project in Riverside County, Calif., dealing another setback for the developers of a project that has been running into regulatory hurdles since they first pitched it in 2004.
The proposed project, on 845 acres in the Cleveland National Forest, would include more than 30 miles of transmission lines connecting to the grids of Edison International subsidiary Southern California Edison Co. and Sempra subsidiary San Diego Gas & Electric Co.
In denying Nevada Hydro's October 2017 application, FERC's Division of Hydropower Licensing wrote Dec. 9 that Nevada Hydro had failed to complete required studies on the impact of building on federal land by declining to work with the U.S. Forest Service on some studies the agency said were needed before a special-use authorization could be granted. FERC dismissed the license application without prejudice, saying the company could refile (Project No. 14227).
Nevada Hydro will reapply with FERC to build the facility, Keith Skoglund, an office manager, said in a Dec. 21 interview.
"We intend to reapply for the application," Skoglund said. "We are not currently in a position to do that at the moment; we need to wait for the correct date to do it."
Calgary, Alberta-based Grafton Asset Management is an investor in the project, Skoglund said. Nevada Hydro described Grafton in a 2017 FERC filing as a global investment manager in the energy sector with $1 billion in assets. The company said it invests in Canadian energy assets.
The same day FERC rejected Nevada Hydro's license application, company owner Rexford Wait and project manager David Kates applied for a preliminary permit for the same project but under a different company, LEAPS Hydro LLC, which Wait incorporated in California that same day. The application was submitted in the same docket.
LEAPS Hydro said that if Nevada Hydro's appeal of the dismissal succeeds, it would withdraw its application. On Dec. 13, FERC rejected the application, saying it could not be accepted until the dismissal of Nevada Hydro's application becomes final, which would happen after either the 30-day period for parties to file for rehearing on that decision passes and no petition for rehearing is filed or after the disposition of all rehearing requests.
Meanwhile, on Dec. 10, a company called Daytona Power Corp. submitted an application for a preliminary permit for what it called the Clearwater Energy Storage Project, also a 500-MW pumped storage facility in the Cleveland National Forest on Lake Elsinore (Project No. 15252).
Daytona Power, which did not immediately respond to a request for comment Dec. 21, said in its application that Nevada Hydro had been placed into receivership in a federal district court in Nevada and that an affiliated company now has a controlling interest in Nevada Hydro.
However, Daytona Power said that if Nevada Hydro's license application is reinstated, it would withdraw its application. FERC said Dec. 16 that it would not accept Daytona Power's application also because the dismissal of the Nevada Hydro application was not yet final.
