TXU told it has to make room for wind power

 

May 5 - McClatchy-Tribune Regional News - Jim Fuquay Fort Worth Star-Telegram, Texas

TXU Corp., which faces a May 29 court date over allegations that it intentionally interfered with West Texas wind farms' ability to move electricity to market, was obligated to make room for that power on transmission lines, a Dallas judge ruled this week.

Mike Lynn, a Dallas lawyer representing FPL Energy in the dispute, said Friday that state District Judge Bruce Priddy rejected TXU's contention that two other transmission companies provided transmission services to FPL's three wind farms and thus were responsible for constructing enough transmission capacity. The contract that TXU signed in 2000 to buy electricity from FPL's facilities in McCamey, south of Midland, required TXU to ensure that adequate transmission capacity was available, Lynn said.

TXU spokesman Tom Kleckner said Priddy's ruling, made Wednesday, was a procedural step in the case, which he characterized as a simple business dispute. He said TXU would not comment further on pending litigation.

TXU originally sued FPL in 2004, claiming that FPL's electricity production from the wind farms fell short of its contracted amounts. According to court documents, FPL responded that only about half the shortage was due to insufficient wind and that half was due to transmission curtailments attributable to congestion on transmission lines, for which TXU shared responsibility.

FPL also charges that TXU ran its Permian Basin coal-fired generation plant, which fed into the same transmission lines, to purposefully congest those lines and shut out FPL's power.

In a related action, an FPL attorney asserted in an April letter to the Public Utility Commission of Texas that TXU's operation of the Permian Basin plant appeared to be a means of manipulating the state's power market to gain higher prices.

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jfuquay@star-telegram.com

Jim Fuquay, 817-390-7552

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