Ameren Illinois remains adamant that it should have exclusive access to construct nearly $2 billion of MISO regional transmission projects in the state without competition.

In a Sept. 9 filing, the company called the Illinois Commerce Commission, MISO and consumer groups’ counter arguments “irrelevant, misleading and without merit” and continued to claim FERC should decide the matter (EL25-105).

Ameren argued in a late July petition that Illinois’ “first in the field” doctrine is the functional equivalent of a right-of-first-refusal law and gives it carte blanche to develop the Illinois portions of the lines in MISO’s second, $22 billion long-range transmission plan. (See Ameren Argues Exclusive Rights to MISO Illinois Competitive Tx Projects.)

Among others, the ICC has asked FERC to reject Ameren’s petition and let the state handle the matter.

“Ameren seeks to accomplish via the commission what it failed to achieve through its lobbying efforts in 2023: the establishment of an exclusive statutory right of first refusal,” the ICC said. It added that courts have never construed the doctrine as a ROFR law, and Illinois Gov. JB Pritzker vetoed a ROFR bill in 2023.

The ICC said Ameren is “forum shopping” with FERC to quash transmission competition. It argued that while the “field” doctrine protects incumbent utilities from competition for retail customers and is meant to discourage duplicative utility facilities and stranded assets, the Illinois Supreme Court has explicitly ruled that it is “not to be employed to totally prevent another from entering a contiguous area or, for that matter, even the same territory.”

MISO has disagreed with Ameren’s claim that it was wrong to put the projects up for solicitation.

“Without a binding determination from an Illinois court or other competent tribunal, it is not clear whether the ‘first in the field’ doctrine has any application in the specific context presented by this case,” the RTO told FERC in late August.

MISO has put two 765-kV projects in Illinois from the second long-rang portfolio up for bid: $717.6 million of the $984.6 million Woodford County-Illinois/Indiana State Line project, and the $940.1 million Sub T-Iowa/Illinois State Line-Woodford County project.

But Ameren insisted that protesters haven’t been able to prove that the doctrine is not “valid law.” It argued in its latest filing that its petition is “specifically limited to an interpretation of MISO’s tariff” as to whether the RTO should have put those projects out for bid. Ameren said a determination as to whether Illinois’ doctrine constitutes a ROFR is an “underlying” issue.

Ameren said it filed a separate “declaratory action in Illinois state court” to verify its rights to the projects over competitive developers. The utility said it understood that FERC doesn’t regulate state transmission siting and said it’s not seeking an interpretation of Illinois law, just the commission’s “confirmation” that the doctrine is an applicable law that MISO should recognize.

“No interpretation of Illinois law is required by the commission because it is clear that the ‘first in the field’ doctrine is existing law that applies to electric transmission,” Ameren argued. It argued that no ICC hearing is required and that the doctrine has already been “broadly” applied in bus service, telecommunications, moving companies, and water and sewer service.

The utility also noted that FERC “alone has the authority to issue a binding interpretation of MISO’s tariff.”

Invenergy Transmission and Exelon have agreed with the ICC that Ameren’s claim should be resolved by Illinois regulators and courts. The Industrial Energy Consumers of America, the Coalition of MISO Transmission Customers, Electricity Transmission Competition Coalition and the Illinois Industrial Energy Consumers have also urged FERC to dismiss the petition. The consumer groups argued that the doctrine is applied on a case-by-case basis in proceedings after evaluation by the ICC and is not an unmitigated shield from competition.