On September 2, 2009, Milford Wind Corridor, LLC (“Milford”) submitted a Petition for Declaratory Order requesting the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (“FERC” or the “Commission”) to confirm that it can retain its firm rights to use 1,000 MW of transmission on a generator lead Milford constructed itself in order to interconnect the full capacity of five planned phases of its entire wind project.

 Milford is developing a multi-phased, 1,000 MW wind-powered generating project in the vicinity of Milford, Utah.  The Project is being developed in five phases, each of which will be owned by a separate indirect subsidiary of Milford.  As part of the Project, Milford has completed construction of an 88 mile, 345 kV generator lead sized to accommodate the full 1,000 MW capacity of the Project, although the last phase will not be completed until 2015.

 Milford is concerned that FERC’s open access policies may require them to make available to third parties transmission capacity Milford will need for future phases of the project, and requests confirmation that Milford will retain a priority right to such capacity.

In its petition, Milford cites other cases where the Commission confirmed priority rights of an owner of generation to the capacity on the associated generator lead.  Milford also cited the Commission’s recent decision in Chinook Power Transmission, LLC, 126 FERC  61,134 (2009) where the Commission held that an “anchor customer” who agreed to fund a portion of a new high-voltage DC transmission line was entitled to firm transmission rights over that line when it was constructed.

 Comments are due on October 2, 2009 in Docket No. EL09-70.