A proposed agreement by Entergy Arkansas to purchase 20 years of solar power from a solar farm planned near Stuttgart would not benefit the utility's customers, an attorney for a group of large electricity users said Thursday.
The Arkansas Public Service Commission heard testimony Thursday in Entergy's request for approval to purchase power from NextEra Energy Resources of Juno Beach, Fla., an affiliate of Florida Power & Light Co. NextEra plans to build a 500-acre solar-energy park about 7 miles southeast of Stuttgart.
Entergy announced in April that it had agreed to buy all of the power produced by the solar plant, to be known as Stuttgart Solar. The commission first must approve the deal.
Entergy filed the request for approval of the deal with the Public Service Commission in April.
Entergy's impetus for the the solar-farm deal is an act passed by the General Assembly in the spring. Act 1088 allows a utility to enter into an agreement to purchase power.
Entergy's agreement with NextEra would raise electric rates and is unnecessary, Jordan Tinsley, an attorney with the Arkansas Electric Energy Consumers Inc., said. Arkansas Electric Energy Consumers represents some of the largest electricity users in the state.
"Our position is that the economic analysis [of the plant] overstates the benefits in savings for customers," Tinsley said.
In addition to opposing Entergy's agreement with NextEra, Arkansas Electric Energy Consumers also opposes recovery by Entergy of any amount of money not spent as planned in a power-purchase agreement, which is allowed by Act 1088, Tinsley said.
But two other parties to the case -- the state attorney general's office and the general staff of the commission -- approve Entergy's plans to buy power from the solar farm.
The power-purchase agreement would provide only 0.8 percent of the current total energy needs of Entergy's current customers, Matt Wolf, Entergy's manager of resource planning, said in pre-hearing testimony.
The solar-power plant will likely continue to produce electricity after some of the state's fossil-fuel generation plants are deactivated, Wolf said.
It is possible that before the 20-year agreement expires in about 2036, Entergy could retire some or all of its coal generation, its Lake Catherine gas-fired generator, its Hot Spring County and Ouachita Parish, La., natural gas plants and its proposed natural gas plant near El Dorado in addition to the possible decommissioning of one unit of its nuclear plant near Russellville, Wolf said.
However, no decision has been made to deactivate or retire any of these plants, Wolf said.
Entergy is requesting approval for the deal from the commission by the end of September.
Business on 07/31/2015