A Louisiana Public Service Commission majority improved the state’s competitive position by streamlining its approval process for large power users while batting away a wolf in sheep’s clothing.
Last week, the PSC approved a directive sponsored by Republican Commissioner Jean-Paul Coussan that would cut red tape for such users, as defined by it. This permits quicker approval for projects that feature a minimum 15-year electric-service agreement with a new or expanding customer, confirmation from the Department of Economic Development that the project is a priority, and a user pledge that it will supply half of the revenue to cover at least half of its project’s fixed costs, which typically involves increasing transmission capacity.
Heretofore all requests to the PSC went through a usual process that might take up to two years for vetting. This new one, if the PSC agreed it met these criteria, could take only a third of that time. The Commission majority saw a need for this to expedite these, by definition, massive projects that, by definition, would take longer to get up and running and in the face of pressure from other states bargaining for locating these within their boundaries. By and large, this new procedure applies to data centers that collectively will require multiplicative increases in power over the next decade within the U.S.