Commissioner James Danly Concurrence Regarding Californians for Green Nuclear Power, Inc.

Commissioner James Danly Statement
March 18, 2021
Docket No. EL21-13-000

I concur with the Commission’s decision to deny Californians for Green Nuclear Power, Inc.’s complaint for failing to meet our pleading requirements.  I share the complainant’s concerns about the reliability consequences of Diablo Canyon Nuclear Power Plant’s (Diablo Canyon) planned retirement, but complainant must do more than list a handful of entities with reliability oversight and baldly assert potential reliability violations for its pleading to be viable. 

I previously voted to initiate a Federal Power Act section 206[1] investigation into the California Independent System Operator Corporation’s (CAISO) markets following the reliability crisis of August, 2020, but the Commission failed to support that action.[2]  I continue to believe a section 206 complaint proceeding is warranted.  In pursuing a section 206 action, I would include an inquiry into whether and why CAISO’s markets cannot sustain a resource like Diablo Canyon, even though its capacity appears to be critical to maintaining reliability in California.  We should keep in mind that CAISO needed to implement emergency rolling blackouts in the heat and wildfires of last summer even though it had access to Diablo Canyon’s 2,240 MW of capacity.  Now CAISO needs not only to remedy the deficiencies in its market needed to ensure that last summer’s emergency is not repeated, but also to replace the capacity that was provided by Diablo Canyon. 

The Commission has no plans to initiate any such investigation.  I understand that CAISO plans to file a package of tariff modifications, and I will carefully review that filing.  I also hope affected parties will file legally sufficient section 206 complaints identifying specific market failures and proposed tariff modifications and other relief, supported by substantial evidence, to present the matter squarely for the Commission’s consideration so that we can ensure the CAISO markets will maintain reliability at just and reasonable rates.  In my view, such actions are necessary to prevent more blackouts.

My separate concurrence today in CAlifornians for Renewable Energy v. California Independent System Operator Corporation broadly highlights the areas where I suspect the CAISO markets are falling short, including the unreasonable over-reliance on less reliable renewable resources without adequately taking into account their actual operating characteristics.[3]  I add to my list of concerns the planned retirement of Diablo Canyon, a reliable baseload resource.  Every resource owner should have the right to retire an uneconomic resource, but the Commission has the obligation to ensure that markets do not hasten retirements by undercompensating owners of non-renewable generation resources with unjust and unreasonable rates.

For these reasons, I respectfully concur.