Dive Summary:

• The National Rural Electric Cooperative Association (NRECA) says the increasing costs are a result of a variety of factors, including 15-minute transmission scheduling, which would require small providers to keep enough staff on hand to accommodate such frequent schedule changes.
• In response to the NRECA’s call for a rehearing, the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) did not question the NRECA’s cost estimates, even going so far as to recognize that the cost of integrating some of the new policies could be “not insignificant.”
• The NRECA argues that the FERC has not provided sufficient evidence to explain the adoption of the $13,500 figure.

From the article:

In a recent filing, NRECA stated that federal regulators erred in claiming that their rule to improve integration of variable energy resources into the grid would not significantly affect small entities such as electric cooperatives. The association’s July 23 filing seeks a rehearing of the order, which focuses primarily on wind and solar energy.

The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission concluded that the rule, issued June 22 (Docket RM10-11), would impact all applicable small transmission providers equally, at an average cost of $13,500 annually, the association noted. ...