Major Nuclear Plant

Brief

Since 1982, an energy regulatory body has charged utilities a fee on every kilowatt-hour of electricity sold by a nuclear power plant. In return for the fee, the energy regulatory body was required to begin removing the highly radioactive used nuclear fuel from plants across the United States no later than January 31, 1998.  The energy regulatory body had yet to perform this, causing delay in performance for WEPCO. They incurred significant costs to store substantially greater quantities of discharged spent fuel on-site at the Point Beach nuclear plant than it would have stored had the energy regulatory body performed as contractually required.

Following unsuccessful attempts at settlement, WEPCO filed a complaint with the US Court of Federal Claims in 2000 to recover the costs that would not have otherwise been incurred if the energy regulatory body had performed its contractual obligations. After an extended proceeding, culminating in a lengthy trial in 2007, WEPCO successfully settled its claim against the energy regulatory body for approximately US$45.5 million in 2011.

What we did

HKA experts were retained by outside counsel for WEPCO to provide detailed analyses of various spent nuclear fuel cases and litigation fees incurred.  We have extensive prior utility experience, particularly on nuclear power plant matters, and specifically the spent nuclear fuel case for WEPCO.

We memorialized the results of the analyses in pre-filed rebuttal testimony with the PSC. Our rebuttal testimony detailed various aspects of WEPCO’s spent nuclear fuel suit and compared it to other spent nuclear fuel cases, noting various unique issues and aspects of the WEPCO spent nuclear fuel case regarding damages and causation.

Our rebuttal testimony also opined that a head-to-head comparison between any two spent nuclear fuel cases is difficult at best, especially given the significant differences between the Xcel Energy and WEPCO cases. After detailing specific issues and facts on the WEPCO spent nuclear fuel matter, HKA opined that the legal fees incurred on the WEPCO case were reasonable and in line with, or less than, those incurred by other utilities. Our experts also testified live at a PSC hearing on the matter, with cross examination by interveners, and PSC staff

Outcomes

The PSC decided not to reduce the amount of legal fees recovered by WEPCO. The PSC found that it was “difficult to determine the reasonableness of legal expenses in one case by comparing them to legal expenses from another case.” This finding validated or adopted the conclusions and opinions provided in the HKA pre-filed and live testimony. Through the knowledge of our experts of the nuclear industry, and specifically spent nuclear fuel matters, we were able to assist WEPCO in full recovery of its legal expenses from the spent nuclear fuel suit.

WEPCO has and will continue to refund its customers the settlement amount from the energy regulatory body. An intervener group, Citizens Utility Board, compared the settlement WEPCO received from the energy regulatory body and the legal costs expended, against the settlement amount and legal fees of Xcel Energy. Citizens Utility Board proposed a reduction in the legal fees WEPCO could recover from the rate base.