Docket No. ER23-2443-001
I concur with today’s order, as it properly interprets and applies the MISO Tariff and the MISO Transmission Owner Agreement.
I write separately to address the guidance the order provides on the generator interconnection-related network upgrade cost responsibility for the GIA and the Eagle Creek Facility. I agree with the order’s conclusion that because METC is a transmission owner signatory to the GIA, section III.A.2.d.4.b of Attachment FF to the MISO Tariff applies to the Contested Network Upgrades, including the ownership interests of MPPA and Wolverine as well as METC.[1] However, as the order notes, section III.A.2.d.4.b provides that the interconnection customer may be eligible to be fully reimbursed for certain generator interconnection-related network upgrades.[2] This section thus serves as a carve-out of the basic principle of participant funding that generation developers in RTOs — and not consumers (i.e., load) — should pay the full “but for” costs of their interconnection, including network upgrades.[3]
In 2007, the Commission likely made a mistake by accepting the carve-out,[4] which on its face appears to be unduly discriminatory and preferential and, most importantly, unfair to consumers, who should not have to pay a developer’s interconnection costs. I concur today only because the carve-out is currently in the MISO Tariff.
For these reasons, I respectfully concur.
[1] Order at P 94
[2] Id. PP 5-6 (citations omitted).
[3] See Midcontinent Indep. Sys. Operator, Inc., 184 FERC ¶ 61,190 (2023) (Christie, Comm’r, concurring at P 2), https://www.ferc.gov/news-events/news/commissioner-christies-concurrence-miso-mpfca-order-concerning-funding; Midcontinent Indep. Sys. Operator, Inc., 184 FERC ¶ 61,156 (2023) (Christie, Comm’r, concurring at P 2), https://www.ferc.gov/news-events/news/commissioner-christies-concurrence-miso-gia-order-concerning-funding; See Midcontinent Indep. Sys. Operator, Inc., 183 FERC ¶ 61,113 (2023) (Christie, Comm’r, concurring at P 2), https://www.ferc.gov/news-events/news/commissioner-christies-concurrence-miso-fsa-order-concerning-funding; Midcontinent Independent System Operator, Inc., 182 FERC ¶ 61,225 (2023) (Christie, Comm’r, concurring at P 2), https://www.ferc.gov/news-events/news/commissioner-christies-concurrence-miso-mpfca-and-fsa-orders-concerning-funding. This principle also applies to developers of merchant transmission lines who seek to interconnect. Midcontinent Indep. Sys. Operator, Inc., 181 FERC ¶ 61,218 (2022) (Christie, Comm’r, concurring at P 1), https://www.ferc.gov/news-events/news/commissioner-christies-concurrence-concerning-funding-interconnection-costs-rtos.
[4] See Int’l Transmission Co., 120 FERC ¶ 61,220 (2007), reh’g denied, 123 FERC ¶ 61,065 (2008).