Cheoah, Santeetlah hydroelectric provider loses appeal over tax value
Brookfield Renewable Partners has lost its appeal on the values that have been placed on its Graham County assets.
The Toronto-based company began the process of appealing to the Graham County Board of Equalization and Review on April 28, with the second conference taking place May 26.
The third-such discussion was set for Tuesday afternoon, but no Brookfield representatives were present for the teleconference.
Attorney Charles Meeker noted that Brookfield had not yet provided documentation of what it feels the assessment should be – only stating a figure of $140 million initially, which was $71 million lower than Graham’s reported value.
With no representation or documentation present at Tuesday’s meeting, the Board voted unanimously to leave the assessment as is.
Brookfield first formed its Smoky Mountain Project in 2013 and owns 141.8 shorelines miles across four hydroelectric developments: Santeetlah (2,881 reservoir acres, 49.2 megawatts); Cheoah (644 acres, 143.7 megawatts), Calderwood (570 acres, 140.4 megawatts) and Chilhowee (1,734 acres, 52.2 megawatts).
The Santeetlah facility sits entirely in Graham County, while 85 percent of the Cheoah facility is in Graham. Crossett contended that the values placed exceeded the fair market value – citing North Carolina General Statute 105-283 – and needed to be reduced.
Crossett added that Brookfield feels the true value is $160 million.
“We are not a utility company, but an independent power producer,” Crossett added. “We are not guaranteed a profit or market rate of return, because electricity is a commodity.”