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    UD-18-06: Renewables Portfolio, Request For Cost Recovery, And Related Relief

    Council Docket UD-18-06, established via Resolution R-18-353, considers Entergy New Orleans’ (“ENO”) application for approval of its proposed Renewables Portfolio, request for Cost Recovery, and Related Relief (“Application”).  In this docket, ENO seeks approval of its proposed renewable energy resources portfolio consisting of a 20 megawatt (“MW”) self-build solar project located in New Orleans East (“New Orleans Solar Station” or “NOSS”), a 50 MW acquisition of a solar project located in Washington Parish (“Iris Solar Facility” or “ISF”), and a 20MW purchase power agreement (“PPA”) from a solar project located in St. James Parish (“St. James PPA”) (collectively, the “Renewables Portfolio”).  However, in the interest of reducing costs, on March 14, 2019, ENO filed a supplemental and amending application seeking to withdraw its request for approval of the previously-proposed 50 MW build-own-transfer (“BOT”) Iris Solar Facility and substituted a proposed Iris purchase power agreement (“Iris PPA”).  

    ENO is seeking a Council finding that the Renewables Portfolio is in the public interest.  The Company also asked Council to approve its cost recovery requests.  Specifically, ENO requested (1) the Council find that the costs associated with the St. James PPA, NOSS, and ISF are eligible for recovery from customers and that the company will have a full and fair opportunity to recover all prudently-incurred costs related to these projects; (2) that the retail revenue requirements associated with NOSS (to be determined in a subsequent revenue requirement filing) are deemed eligible for recovery in the first billing cycle of the month following commercial operation via the applicable Purchased Power and Capacity Acquisition Cost Recovery Rider (“PPCACR Rider”); and (3) approve recovery, through the FAC (fuel adjustment clause) for the St. James PPA (power purchase agreement) and Iris PPA of the energy costs and expenses incurred under the PPAs. 

    On July 25, 2019, the City Council adopted Resolution R-19-293 resulting in settlement of Docket UD-18-06.

    Pertinent docket deadline dates were as follows:

    • September 28, 2018 - All interested persons that wished to intervene in this docket filed motions to intervene with the Clerk of Council no later than September 28, 2018, with objections to intervention requests filed within five days of such requests; 
       
    • Discovery Period - Discovery period commenced upon issuance of Resolution R-18-353 (August 23, 2018) and will run until the filing of an  Agreement in Principle (settlement) with the Council or until 8 days prior to the date of the Evidentiary Hearing in the event the parties are not able to reach settlement.  Discovery requests must be made in time that responses may be received prior to the close of the discovery period.  Responses to such data requests are made on a rolling basis and due in hand within 10 calendar days of receipt. Parties are encouraged to submit their data requests and responses electronically, where appropriate.  It is anticipated that during discovery, the parties may be required to produce documents or information that is deemed confidential and/or highly sensitive and accordingly, the Council adopts for use in this docket its Official Protective Order adopted by Resolution R-07-432; 
       
    • November 30, 2018 - Comments and/or Position Statements from all Intervenors on ENO’s Application due; 
       
    • December 21, 2018 – Comments and/or Position Statements from the Council’s Advisors on ENO’s Application due; 
       
    • December 28, 2018 – Due date of the Joint Status Report by the Council’s Advisors indicating whether the Parties believe they can reach a full or partial settlement, contested or uncontested, to resolve all issues in the case. If a full or partial settlement attained, the Joint Status Report would also include a deadline within which the settling parties would submit an Agreement in Principle to the Council for consideration; 
       
    • December 28, 2018 - In the event a settlement was not reached in this docket, Council Advisors is required to file a motion requesting that the Hearing Officer establish a procedural schedule that would allow parties to submit evidence into the record of this docket and set a date for an evidentiary hearing on the merits of ENO’s Application; 
       
    • February 1, 2019 – Status report updating the Council on settlement discussions due.  Settlement discussions were scheduled to continue through April 1, 2019.  The Advisors convened settlement conferences with the parties as necessary during this period; 
       
    • March 1, 2019 - Status report updating the Council on settlement discussions due. Settlement discussions were scheduled to continue through April 1, 2019.  The Advisors convened settlement conferences with the parties as necessary during this period; 
       
    • June 3, 2019 – Deadline for the Advisors to file on behalf of any settling parties, an Agreement in Principle (“AIP”/settlement) with the Council settling some or all of the issues, and/or (as appropriate) file a status report with the Council indicating that settlement negotiations have not resulted in an AIP resolving the issues in this proceeding, and setting forth the issues regarding which disagreement remains among the parties. 
       
    •  July 17, 2019– To the extent that some or all of the issues in this proceeding are not resolved through an agreement in principle, the Intervenors and Advisors were required to file any comments and testimony regarding the outstanding issues related to ENO’s 90MW Renewable Portfolio by July 17, 2019; 
       
    • July 25, 2019 - The City Council adopted Resolution R-19-293 resulting in settlement of Docket UD-18-06.