R8‑64 APPLICATION
FOR CERTIFICATE OF PUBLIC CONVENIENCE AND NECESSITY BY CPRE PROGRAM
PARTICIPANT, QUALIFYING COGENERATOR, OR SMALL POWER PRODUCER; PROGRESS REPORTS
(a) Scope of Rule.
(1) This rule applies to applications for a
certificate of public convenience and necessity pursuant to G.S. 62‑110.1(a)
filed by any person, other than an electric public utility, who is an owner of
a renewable energy facility that is participating in the Competitive
Procurement of Renewable Energy Program established in G.S. 62-110.8, or by any
person who is seeking the benefits of 16 U.S.C. 824a-3 or G.S. 62‑156 as
a qualifying cogenerator or a qualifying small power producer as defined in 16
U.S.C. 796(17) and (18), or as a small power producer as defined in G.S. 62‑3(27a),
except persons exempt from certification by the provisions of G.S. 62‑110.1(g).
(2) For purposes of this rule, the term
"person" shall include a municipality as defined in Rules R7-2(c) and
R10-2(c), including a county of the State.
(3) The construction of a facility for the
generation of electricity shall include not only the building of a new
building, structure or generator, but also the renovation or reworking of an
existing building, structure or generator in order to enable it to operate as a
generating facility.
(4) This rule shall apply to any person within
its scope who begins construction of an electric generating facility without
first obtaining a certificate of public convenience and necessity. In such
circumstances, the application shall include an explanation for the applicant's
beginning of construction before the obtaining of the certificate.
(b) The Application. The application shall be comprised of
the following five exhibits:
(1) Exhibit 1 shall contain:
(i) The full and correct name, business address,
business telephone number, and electronic mailing address of the facility
owner;
(ii) A statement of whether the facility owner is an
individual, a partnership, or a corporation and, if a partnership, the name and
business address of each general partner and, if a corporation, the state and
date of incorporation and the name, business address, business telephone
number, and electronic mailing address of an individual duly authorized to act
as corporate agent for the purpose of the application and, if a foreign
corporation, whether domesticated in North Carolina; and
(iii) The full and correct name of the site owner and,
if the owner is other than the applicant, the applicant's interest in the site.
(2) Exhibit 2 shall contain:
(i) A color map or aerial photo showing the location
of the generating facility site in relation to local highways, streets, rivers,
streams, and other generally known local landmarks, with the proposed location
of major equipment indicated on the map or photo, including: the generator,
fuel handling equipment, plant distribution system, startup equipment, the site
boundary, planned and existing pipelines, planned and existing roads, planned
and existing water supplies, and planned and existing electric facilities. A
U.S. Geological Survey map or an aerial photo map prepared via the
State's geographic information system is preferred; and
(ii) The E911 street address, county in which the
proposed facility would be located, and GPS coordinates of the approximate
center of the proposed facility site to the nearest second or one thousandth of
a degree.
(3) Exhibit 3 shall contain:
(i) The nature of the generating facility, including
the type and source of its power or fuel;
(ii) A description of the buildings, structures and
equipment comprising the generating facility and the manner of its operation;
(iii) The gross and net projected maximum dependable
capacity of the facility as well as the facility's nameplate capacity,
expressed as megawatts (alternating current);
(iv) The projected date on which the facility will come
on line;
(v) The applicant's general plan for sale of the
electricity to be generated, including the utility to which the applicant plans
to sell the electricity;
(vi) Any provisions for wheeling of the electricity, if
applicable;
(vii) Arrangements for firm, non-firm or emergency
generation, if applicable;
(viii) The service life of the project;
(ix) The projected annual sales in kilowatt-hours; and
(x) Whether the applicant intends to produce renewable
energy certificates that are eligible for compliance with the State's renewable
energy and energy efficiency portfolio standard.
(4) Exhibit 4 shall contain:
(i) A complete list of all federal and state licenses,
permits and exemptions required for construction and operation of the
generating facility and a statement of whether each has been obtained or
applied for.
(ii) A copy of those that have been obtained should be
filed with the application; a copy of those that have not been obtained at the
time of the application should be filed with the Commission as soon as they are
obtained.
(5) Exhibit 5 shall contain the expected cost
of the proposed facility.
(6) An applicant who desires to enter into a
contract for 5 years or more for the sale of electricity, whose facility will
have a nameplate capacity of 5 megawatts alternating current or more, and whose
facility is not a solar photovoltaic facility, shall include the three
additional exhibits as described in R8‑64(b)(6)(i), (ii), and
(iii) below, except an applicant who desires to enter into a contract of 5
years or more for the sale of electricity from a solar photovoltaic facility of
25 megawatts alternating current or more shall also include the three
additional exhibits referenced herein.
(i) Exhibit 6 shall contain:
a. A statement detailing the experience and
expertise of the persons who will develop, design, construct and operate the
project to the extent such persons are known at the time of the application;
b. Information specifically identifying the extent
to which any regulated utility will be involved in the actual operation of the
project; and
c. A statement obtained by the applicant from the
electric utility to which the applicant plans to sell the electricity to be
generated setting forth an assessment of the impact of such purchased power on
the utility's capacity, reserves, generation mix, capacity expansion plan, and
avoided costs.
(ii) Exhibit 7 shall contain:
a. The most current available balance sheet of the
applicant;
b. The most current available income statement of
the applicant;
c. An economic feasibility study of the project;
and
d. A statement of the actual financing
arrangements entered into in connection with the project to the extent known at
the time of the application.
(iii) Exhibit 8 shall contain:
a. The projected annual hourly production profile
for the first full year of operation of the renewable energy facility in
kilowatt-hours, including an explanation of potential factors influencing the
shape of the production profile, including the following, if applicable: fixed
tilt or tracking panel arrays, inverter loading ratio, over-paneling, clipped
energy, or inverter AC output power limits;
b. A detailed explanation of all energy inputs and
outputs, of whatever form, for the project, including the amount of energy and
the form of energy to be sold to each purchaser; and
c. A detailed explanation of arrangements for fuel
supply, including the length of time covered by the arrangements, to the extent
known at the time of the application.
(7) All applications shall be signed and
verified by the applicant or by an individual duly authorized to act on behalf
of the applicant for the purpose of the application.
(8) Applications filed on behalf of a
corporation are not subject to the provision of R1‑5(d) that requires
corporate pleadings to be filed by a member of the Bar of the State of North
Carolina. Should a public hearing be required, the requirements of G.S. 84-4 and
G.S. 84-4.1 shall be applicable.
(9) Falsification of or failure to disclose any
required information in the application may be grounds for denying or revoking
any certificate.
(10) The application shall be in the form adopted
by the Commission and accompanied by the filing fee required by G.S. 62-300.
The application may be filed electronically or by transmission of an original
to the Chief Clerk of the Utilities Commission.
(11) If an applicant considers certain of the
required information to be confidential and entitled to protection from public
disclosure, it may designate said information as confidential and file it under
seal. Documents marked as confidential will be treated pursuant to applicable
Commission rules, procedures, and orders dealing with filings made under seal
and with nondisclosure agreements.
(c) Procedure upon receipt of Application. — Upon the
filing of an application appearing to meet the requirements set forth above,
the Commission will process it as follows:
(1) The Commission will issue an order
requiring the applicant to publish notice of the application once a week for
four successive weeks in a newspaper of general circulation in the county where
the generating facility is proposed to be constructed and requiring the
applicant to mail a copy of the application and the notice, no later than the
first date that such notice is published, to the electric utility to which the
applicant plans to sell the electricity to be generated. Each electric utility
shall provide on its website a mailing address to which the application and
notice should be mailed. The applicant shall be responsible for filing with the
Commission an affidavit of publication and a signed and verified certificate of
service to the effect that the application and notice have been mailed to the
electric utility to which the applicant plans to sell the electricity to be
generated.
(2) If the applicant does not file the
affidavit of publication and certificate of service within twelve months of the
Commission's publication order, the Commission will automatically dismiss the
application.
(3) The Chief Clerk will provide a copy of the
application and the notice to the State Environmental Review Clearinghouse for
distribution by the Clearinghouse Coordinator to State agencies having an
interest in the application.
(4) If a complaint is received within 10 days
after the last date of the publication of the notice, the Commission will
schedule a public hearing to determine whether a certificate should be awarded
and will give reasonable notice of the time and place of the hearing to the
applicant and to each complaining party and will require the applicant to
publish notice of the hearing in the newspaper in which the notice of the application
was published. If no complaint is received within the time specified, the
Commission may, upon its own initiative, order and schedule a hearing to
determine whether a certificate should be awarded and, if the Commission orders
a hearing upon its own initiative, it will require notice of the hearing to be
published by the applicant in the newspaper in which the notice of the
application was published.
(5) If no complaint is received within the time
specified and the Commission does not order a hearing upon its own initiative,
the Commission will enter an order awarding the certificate.
(d) The Certificate.
(1) The certificate shall be subject to
revocation if any of the other federal or state licenses, permits or exemptions
required for construction and operation of the generating facility is not
obtained and that fact is brought to the attention of the Commission and the
Commission finds that as a result the public convenience and necessity no
longer requires, or will require, construction of the facility.
(2) The certificate must be renewed by
re-compliance with the requirements set forth in this Rule if the applicant
does not begin construction within 5 years after issuance of the certificate.
(3) Both before the time construction is completed
and after, all certificate holders must advise both the Commission and the
utility involved of any plans to sell, transfer, or assign the certificate or
the generating facility or of any significant changes in the information set
forth in subsections (b)(1) thru (b)(5) of this Rule, and the Commission will
order such proceedings as it deems appropriate to deal with such plans or
changes. The following changes in information are exemplary of changes that
require an amendment to the certificate issued for the facility: a transfer of
the certificate or the facility, a change in the facility owner's name, a
change in the fuel source, or a change in the generating capacity of the
facility. The following changes in information are exemplary of changes that
require notice to the Commission, but do not require an amendment to the
certificate: a change in facility owner's contact information, or a change in
the upstream ownership of the facility owner.
(e) In addition to complying with any other applicable filing
requirements pursuant to this Rule or other Commission rules, the filing of an
amendment to the certificate application, or the filing of a FERC Form No. 556
for the purpose of satisfying the notice requirements of 18 C.F.R. 292.207(c)
or for the purpose of satisfying the requirements of subsection (d) of this
Rule, shall be accompanied by a cover letter that identifies the facility, the
facility owner, and the associated docket number assigned to the matter by the
Chief Clerk, and includes a short, plain statement alerting the Commission to
the changed information, if any.
(NCUC Docket No.
E-100, Sub 113, 2/29/08; NCUC Docket No. E-100, Subs 113 & 121, 1/31/11;
NCUC Docket No. M-100, Sub 136, 6/26/12; NCUC Docket No. E-100, Sub 134,
07/30/12; NCUC Docket No. E-100, Sub 134, 11/04/14; NCUC Docket No. E‑100,
Sub 113, 12/31/14; NCUC Docket No. E-100, Sub 134, 3/18/2015, NCUC Docket No.E‑100,
Sub 134, 5/23/2016; NCUC Docket No. E-100, Sub 150, 11/06/2017; NCUC Docket
Nos. E-100, Subs 113, 121, & 134, 03/29/2018; NCUC Docket No. E-100, Sub 166,
08/31/2020; NCUC Docket No. M-100, Sub 147, 9/15/2023; NCUC Docket No. M-100,
Sub 196, 9/19/2023.)
