Vistra has agreed to pay $38 million to wind down a long-running FERC inquiry into whether it manipulated prices in MISO’s 2015/16 capacity auction.
Vistra, Dynegy at the time of the alleged manipulation, said it’s ready to pay MISO $38 million, which MISO will distribute to net buyers of Zone 4 capacity in downstate Illinois in the 2015/16 auction and to customers of Ameren Illinois that paid the capacity charge resulting from the auction (ER25-3069).
Vistra settled with complainants Public Citizen, the Illinois Attorney General, Southwestern Electric Cooperative, Illinois Municipal Electric Agency and the Illinois Industrial Energy Consumers. The agreement was struck first at a May 15 in-person settlement conference.
FERC in 2024 directed hearing and settlement procedures after its Office of Enforcement in 2022 concluded Dynegy took actions to make sure one of its resources set the $150/MW-day clearing price for Southern Illinois to raise profits. (See FERC Staff Finds Dynegy Manipulated 2015 MISO Capacity Auction.) Vistra purchased Dynegy in 2018.
In 2024, Vistra tried unsuccessfully to get FERC to back down on some of the findings from its staff. (See Dynegy Unsuccessful in Rehearing Requests of 2015 MISO Capacity Auction Manipulation Case.)
The company asked FERC to issue an order approving the settlement agreement on or before Aug. 29. The settlement amount is not subject to additional interest, considering the 10 years that have passed since MISO held the auction.
“While this figure was determined on a black-box basis, negotiations among the settling parties concerned issues such as the passage of time since Dynegy’s alleged actions, the time-value of money and the commission’s regulations regarding interest, demonstrating the importance to certain of the settling parties of speedy approval of the settlement and disbursement of the settlement amount,” Vistra said of negotiations in its Aug. 1 filing.
The settlement is a fraction of the $429 million in refunds the Illinois Office of the Attorney General at one point claimed were due to Illinois ratepayers.
The settlement would release Vistra from all claims of market manipulation and attempts to exercise market power in the Zone 4 auction for the 2015/16 MISO planning year and settle all challenges relating to the clearing price. Vistra said it likewise would withdraw all its appeals stemming from the lengthy case.
Vistra continues to deny all allegations concerning Dynegy’s conduct.
