Duke Energy wants longer Catawba license

Duke Energy has asked federal regulators to add a decade to the 40-year license it was granted last month to manage the Catawba River.

Duke filed papers Monday that ask the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission for a rehearing of its hydroelectric license for 225 miles of the Catawba.

The utility’s main argument is that the license should stay in effect for 50 years, not the 40 years FERC granted in November.

Duke had committed, in an agreement with the public over license terms, to spend more money and land in conservation if it got a 50-year license. It would double the $3 million it will donate to state agencies to buy land for conservation, and add easements on 274 acres to the 2,455 acres it will protect.

Duke says it wants to fulfill the Comprehensive Relicensing Agreement or CRA. But the conservation commitments aren’t included in the license itself.

“Those provisions in the CRA specifically link to the 50-year license,” said company spokeswoman Jennifer Jabon. “Our plan is to honor the agreement as written.”

Vicki Taylor, executive coordinator of the Catawba-Wateree Relicensing Coalition, which negotiated with Duke for three years, said her members hope Duke will honor all the agreement’s provisions.

“We’re happy the license has been issued,” she said. “It’s better for everybody if they do get the 50-year term because nothing then is in jeopardy for the CRA.”

FERC assigns terms based on the amount of construction and environmental measures the new license requires, from 30 years for little effort to 50 years for extensive work.

Without elaborating, the federal agency judged Duke’s “moderate” scope of work to be worthy of the 40-year term. Duke soon said it would challenge the agency.

This week’s filing says the company will spend $154 million on new construction for environmental and recreational measures. Annual operating and maintenance costs for the upgrades, combined with the loss of generating power that will result, will total more than $25 million, Duke said.

Under the license, Duke will build systems to let migratory fish and eels swim upstream, create or expand 58 recreational areas and install devices to improve dissolved oxygen in the water it releases from its dams.

Among its environmental measures are increasing water flows for fish and wildlife, releasing water for paddlers and protecting endangered sturgeon.

“This level of measures can only be classified as ‘extensive’ under commission and court precedent,” Duke wrote.

A FERC spokeswoman said the agency doesn’t comment on pending matters but will address Duke’s appeals in an order on the rehearing request.

Duke said it has already spent $54 million to install equipment, such as aerators, that will allow the environmental measures to begin and $111 million to apply for the license. FERC typically doesn’t take account of such spending in granting license terms.

Duke contends that the federal agency has granted 50-year license terms for utilities that spent less on construction and environmental measures. Among them, the company said, was a 2007 license for the New York Power Authority, which committed to spend $58 million for its Niagara River hydro project.

Citing previous court cases, Duke claims that FERC must provide a “reasoned analysis” for treating utilities differently.

Duke unsuccessfully argued this year for a 50-year hydro license for the Yadkin River east of Charlotte.

FERC issued the Yadkin license with a 40-year term in April. Duke asked for a rehearing and urged that the license be extended to 50 years, but FERC refused in October.

This week’s filing includes 11 other requested changes in the Catawba license. Those include a three-month extension to file plans to trap and truck migratory fish around the Lake Wateree dam, and a request that a recreational plan for the Catawba be updated after 20 years instead of 10 years.

This story was originally published December 22, 2015 at 12:07 PM with the headline "Duke Energy wants longer Catawba license."