JANESVILLE The states Public Service Commission has green-lighted a 324-megawatt gas-fired power plant proposed in the town of Darien, providing certainty for the Invenergy proposal, while the project still waits a written decision and final word on state air permits.
The PSC provisionally OKd Invenergys project at a hearing on Thursday, the agency confirmed in statement but some on the states main utility regulatory panel criticized the legal framework the PSC had to use to vet the project.
The PSC said in a statement that under current state law governing energy policy, the agency was not able to vet the project in the way it normally would.
The PSC said that the way state law currently applies to non-utility, merchant developers like Invenergy are not required to show their projects satisfy the reasonable need of the public, which is the main litmus tests utilities who build power plants must face.
The PSC wrote that under state law as it applies to companies like Invenergy, the states not able to consider alternative sources for additional power supply or other factors including engineering and project cost as the agency might otherwise want to.
The PSCs statement raises questions of how regulators can crosscheck whether an additional power plant is justified if it cant fully vet whether the state needs more power generation, or whether some power plant alternatives might cost less.
Invenergy would still face an air pollution protection permitting process to build the power plant off Highway 14 just north of the Walworth County Village of Darien.
The plan has drawn objections from residents and farmers who would live by the gas plant, and it has stirred environmentalist groups who believe the project will transform a rural area into a feeder zone they say would fuel sprawling data centers and other major industrial users that are driving a surge in need for electric capacity in Wisconsin.
Invenergy pointed out in a statement that a majority of the hundreds of comments the project's PSC proposal drew were positive, including comments from the statewide labor groups who say the project will bring work to local skilled trades workers.
Jonathan Shelton, the developer of Invenergys Foundry Ridge project, praised the PSCs verbal approval, saying in a statement that Invenergy looks forward to bringing the energy and economic benefits of Foundry Ridge to life, which he said includes construction and future operations jobs, alongside over $900,000 in new local revenue annually, alongside an expansion of power to Wisconsin as demand grows.