Oregon Wind Farm Takes on Major Utility

PORTLAND, Ore. (CN) - An Oregon wind farm sued Portland General Electric Co., demanding that it buy the wind power on a schedule approved by the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission.

PáTu Wind Farm filed a complaint against Portland General Electric with the FERC in 2011. PáTu is a 9 megawatt wind farm near Wasco, south of the Columbia River in north central Oregon. Its turbines can produce up to 1.5 megawatts of energy, enough to power around 2,200 homes each year.

Portland General Electric supplies power to about 44 percent of the population of Oregon, according to publicly available information.

In its FERC complaint, PáTu said Portland General Electric (PGE) did not provide it with the transmission services it needs and refused to accept deliveries on a 15-minute schedule, among other things.

A FERC panel ruled in January that PGE cannot refuse to accept PáTu's output, but did not rule on whether PGE should pay reparations.

PáTu sued PGE on July 22 in Federal Court, claiming the electric company "unduly discriminates in failing to allow a dynamic schedule import" of the wind farm's output, in violation of Federal Power Act.

It claims PGE will accept electric output only in megawatt-hour blocks, which gives PGE more benefits, at the wind farm's expense.

It seeks a court order requiring PGE to enforce the FERC orders and accept its unscheduled net output.

"PGE acted with near total disregard or indifference to the rights of PáTu or the probable consequences of PGE's course of conduct when it refused to accept and purchase all of PáTu's net output made available indirectly via [Bonneville Power Administration's] dynamic scheduling services, or otherwise committed grossly negligent misconduct," the complaint states.

PáTu also seeks damages for breach of contract and breach of faith.

Its lead counsel is Gregory Adams, of Richardson Adams, in Boise.

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