Wind Watch is a registered educational charity, founded in 2005. |
Wind power provider suing city over power usage
Credit: By Jeff Fox | The Examiner | www.examiner.net ~~
Translate: FROM English | TO English
Translate: FROM English | TO English
The city of Independence is being sued for more than half a million dollars in a dispute over wind-generated electricity.
Smoky Hills Winds Project II accuses the city of a breach-of-contract in a lawsuit filed Jan. 23 in federal court.
“We think our case is strong. Of course, they think their case is strong,” Independence Power and Light Director Leon Daggett said Monday.
Independence Power and Light buys about 15 megawatts a day – 5 percent of IPL’s power – from Smoky Hills, but the day-to-day generation and distribution of power for IPL and many other utilities is set by the Southwest Power Pool. That’s the group that, for example, tells IPL on a given day whether to fire up the Blue Valley plant on Truman Road.
Smoky Hills contends in court that the Southwest Power Pool caused “curtailments” of power being sent to Independence several times from March 2012 through September 2014.
“We were prepared, willing and ready to take the power,” Daggett said.
Smoky Hills says that cost it $544,553, of which the city has only paid $18,648.
Smoky Hills, west of Salina, Kansas, is operated by an Italian renewable energy company, Enel Green Power S.p.A. It says even if there are disruptions, the city is obligated to pay and work out a refund.
“We contend that we shouldn’t have to pay,” Daggett said.
He said the city and Smoky Hills have negotiated the dispute but that that’s gone nowhere. The city has bought power from the facility for about six years.
“The issue here is when the power is curtailed by a third party,” Daggett said.
At this point, he said, it’s headed for a judge and the city just wants the issue to away “because now it’s a matter of principle.”
Smoky Hills has filed a similar lawsuit against Springfield, Missouri, which also owns its own electric utility.
This article is the work of the source indicated. Any opinions expressed in it are not necessarily those of National Wind Watch.
The copyright of this article resides with the author or publisher indicated. As part of its noncommercial educational effort to present the environmental, social, scientific, and economic issues of large-scale wind power development to a global audience seeking such information, National Wind Watch endeavors to observe “fair use” as provided for in section 107 of U.S. Copyright Law and similar “fair dealing” provisions of the copyright laws of other nations. Send requests to excerpt, general inquiries, and comments via e-mail.
Wind Watch relies entirely on User Funding |
(via Paypal) |
(via Stripe) |
Share: