2.5. ERMUSR 09-11-2012 - Laserfiche WebLink

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- 4 - present makes no wholesale sales. Any wholesale sales in the future similarly would be very limited. Elk River thus easily meets the Commission's definition of a small electric utility, disposing of well under 4 million MWh of energy annually.3 Elk River's generation assets are limited. Elk River operates a landfill gas-to- electric generating plant that began operations in October, 2002 and generates approximately 3.2 MW of power and 26,000 MWh of energy annually. The capacity and energy from this plant are contracted to Great River Energy. Elk River also owns a backup diesel power plant with four engines4 that can generate 10.6 MW of power. The capacity of this backup plant is currently contracted to Great River Energy. As a backup plant, this facility produces only a few hundred MWh of energy annually. None of the generation from either plant is sold by Elk River in the markets for energy, although it is possible Elk River may begin to sell energy or capacity from these two plants in the market when the current contractual arrangements for one or both of these facilities eventually expires or is terminated.5 Elk River is transmission-dependant. However, it owns limited and discrete transmission equipment located in substations that interconnect Elk River facilities with GRE-owned transmission. Elk River's transmission assets, which are necessary for Elk River to receive the power that it distributes to its retail customers, consist of limited and 3 See Wolverine Power Supply Coop., Inc., 127 FERC¶61,159,P 15(2009)(reaffirming that only utilities disposing of under 4 million MWh of energy annually meet the Commission's definition of"small utility"). See also Black Hills Power, Inc., 135 FERC¶61,058,PP 4-8(2011). 4 There is space available at the plant for a fifth diesel engine to be added in the future if needed,but even operated at maximum capacity this would not substantially increase output for standards of conduct waiver purposes. The current contractual agreement with Great River Energy concerning the diesel plant is an"evergreen" arrangement that renews each year but which potentially could be terminated each year. The current contractual agreement with Great River Energy governing the landfill gas power plant expires in 2022.