FERC last week ushered through three more unexecuted facilities service agreements (FSAs) between MISO, wind developers and transmission owners.
The unexecuted FSAs are a continuing protest against a 2018 commission order reinstating MISO transmission owners’ unilateral rights to self-fund network upgrades. Wind developers are leaving FSAs unsigned of late, hoping that interconnection customers will again be able to self-fund the upgrades necessary to connect to the RTO’s system. (See MISO TOs’ Self-funding Option Tested Again.)
The unexecuted FSAs stem from Next Era Energy’s 200-MW Heartland Divide II wind project in Iowa with transmission owner MidAmerican Energy (ER21-834, ER21-836 and ER21-837).
Once again, the wind developer asked FERC to direct MISO to amend the FSAs by including a provision for the self-funding option’s possible reversal.
Once again, FERC declined.
In accepting the FSAs, the commission said it disagreed with NextEra’s argument for an amendment. FERC also said it wouldn’t take action on allowing interconnection customers to “retroactively annul and reverse … initial funding elections” should it later alter or eliminate the TO self-funding option.
The FSAs “appropriately reflect the state of the law as of the date the agreement becomes effective,” the commission said.
FERC Chair Richard Glick and Commissioner Allison Clements have said that MISO TOs’ absolute right to self-fund could be unfair. They said TOs could engage in preferential treatment among interconnection customers and that customers unable to finance upgrades at more favorable rates could be forced to reimburse TOs at a predetermined rate of return.
The two commissioners did not weigh in on the overall fairness of MISO’s self-funding options in the latest orders.
