FERC has found that MISO and SPP’s 100% cost allocation to generation for the pair’s $1.7 billion Joint Targeted Interconnection Queue (JTIQ) transmission portfolio remains appropriate (ER24-2797-001, et al.).  

In an order issued at its monthly open meeting June 26, the commission rejected arguments from a group of clean energy organizations that took issue with the 100% allocation to interconnecting generation, and Arkansas and Mississippi regulators, who criticized the backstop feature that allocates costs to load if the lines aren’t fully subscribed. It ruled that it continues to find that the JTIQ cost allocation is just and reasonable. 

MISO and SPP won approval from FERC in late 2024 to fully allocate the costs of the JTIQ portfolio to interconnecting generation assessed per megawatt. The RTOs initially planned to use a split involving 90% to generators and 10% to load, but they abandoned the approach after the U.S. Department of Energy announced that the portfolio would receive $464.5 million from its Grid Resilience and Innovation Partnership (GRIP) program. (See MISO, SPP Ditch 90/10 JTIQ Allocation After $465M DOE Grant.) Under the approved allocation, load will act as a temporary backstop for their share of the costs until enough new generation projects commit to the lines and pick up the tab for construction. 

The American Clean Power Association, Solar Energy Industries Association and Advanced Power Alliance argued that the JTIQ’s allocation, where generation pays all line costs and load pays nothing, ignores that load would “undeniably benefit” from the transmission. They also said the commission overlooked that new interconnection customers aren’t the “legally relevant cause” of the JTIQ portfolio, nor its sole beneficiaries. The groups said FERC abandoned its cost-causation principles and violated the Federal Power Act and the Administrative Procedure Act by greenlighting the allocation. 

FERC said it approved the allocation “based on the unique set of facts and circumstances of the proposed JTIQ framework” and cited “‘massive amounts of interconnection requests,’ the lack of transmission system capacity at the seam to accommodate this volume of interconnection, the significant incremental cost of constructing network upgrades under the RTOs’ affected-system study process … as well as the $464.5 million DOE GRIP funding, which covers approximately 25% of the costs that will be allocated to the interconnection customers.” 

The commission said MISO and SPP’s JTIQ studies and economic theory show that interconnection customers will benefit from more certain and smaller upgrade costs and a reduced interconnection timeline. 

“We continue to find that, based on substantial record evidence, interconnection customers are the primary beneficiaries of the JTIQ upgrades … and therefore should bear the primary responsibility for the … capital costs. In contrast, load still receives ‘some benefit’ and is correspondingly reasonably allocated more limited, potentially temporary, cost responsibility through the backstop funding mechanism,” FERC wrote. 

The commission added that MISO and SPP can continue to use their load as a backstop cost allocation for JTIQ lines despite the Arkansas and Mississippi public service commissions’ argument that MISO could not prove enough benefits would flow to MISO South from JTIQ lines to justify a footprint-wide backstop allocation. 

“The RTOs have shown that the entirety of MISO will benefit to some degree from the high-voltage transmission facilities in JTIQ portfolio No. 1 that will enable the interconnection of generation, regardless of the subregion in which these facilities are located,” FERC said. 

The commission said that despite MISO’s Midwest-to-South transfer limit, transmission customers in both regions would receive “minor and incidental benefits from increased transmission system robustness” and “more timely interconnection of new generation capacity that enables lower production cost generation to access the entire MISO market.” FERC also said lower congestion at the RTOs’ seam could lower MISO’s congestion payments to SPP. 

FERC cited an SPP study that showed that a swifter interconnection of projects at the seam would boost reliability and confer almost $176 million of adjusted production costs benefits to the RTOs, with $76.5 million benefiting MISO.  

FERC echoed MISO and SPP that the backstop allocation is “highly unlikely” to become the permanent allocation based on the “substantial” amount of proposed generation in their interconnection queues and their forecasts that call for increasing load. 

MISO generation developers, meanwhile, have expressed disdain for the JTIQ cost allocation, saying the additional studies the RTO tacked onto the process could send cost assignments as high as they were under its former affected-system study process with SPP. (See MISO Gen Developers Sour on RTO’s JTIQ Cost Allocation.)  

Generation developers also don’t believe GRIP funding is assured under the Trump administration. National Grid Renewables in May told MISO the “certainty of this funding has come into question under the current presidential administration.” The company said allocating costs solely to generation was approved only because the grants would fund almost half of the JTIQ portfolio. National Grid predicted challenges in construction timelines if grant funding is revoked and generators are left to pay more than what they estimated. 

MISO responded at the time that it was not expecting JTIQ funding changes and said DOE had not indicated that GRIP funding is in jeopardy. However, the RTO added that “JTIQ is not contingent upon the receipt of GRIP funding.”