By Amanda Durish Cook

CARMEL, Ind. — MISO is proposing to set limits on the amount of time its members have to initiate alternative dispute resolution measures, but stakeholders are saying the RTO might not be leaving them enough room to research and raise settlement issues.

The RTO is recommending market participants have a 30-day time limit to request either an informal or formal alternative dispute resolution, John Weissenborn, director of market services, told a Feb. 8 Market Subcommittee meeting. Settlement disputes and corrections would be wrapped up within one year from the operating day in question under the proposal, he said.

The process is used in place of a lawsuit or FERC complaint when parties seek to negotiate contractual disputes over settlements. The RTO’s current Tariff doesn’t contain provisions that “categorically bar settlement disputes raised after a long time,” according to MISO.

MISO plans to revise Attachment HH of its Tariff — which governs such disputes — to provide market participants with 30 calendar days from the RTO’s denial of a settlement dispute to ask for an informal alternative dispute resolution, then another 30 days after that to request a formal dispute resolution if the informal request is denied by MISO.

Weissenborn said the deadlines will apply to both transmission and market settlements. The deadlines will promote “market certainty, prevent stale claims and facilitate accuracy in corrections of settlement statements,” he said.

MISO is aiming to file the plan with FERC by May, with the deadlines imposed by July.

Weissenborn said other RTOs have time limits ranging from five months to three years. Both SPP and PJM impose a two-year cutoff, while CAISO follows a three-year limit. NYISO employs the shortest cutoff at five months.

“There is precedent for this type of thing,” Weissenborn said. “It will encourage market participants to file their claim in a timely manner.”

Northern Indiana Public Service Co.’s Bill SeDoris and Dynegy’s Mark Volpe both asked how MISO’s one-year limit will line up with other RTOs’ disparate time limits should disputes involve inter-RTO matters, such as pseudo-ties and coordinated transaction scheduling, and which timeline MISO market participants should follow.

Weissenborn said MISO looked into such transactions and concluded that alternative dispute resolution would be separate for each RTO’s settlement.

Other stakeholders cautioned that the 30-day limit to research and initiate a dispute resolution may be too tight, asking instead for 60 or 90 days to initiate a dispute.

Weissenborn asked for more stakeholder comments over the next two weeks and said the comments could influence the final draft of MISO’s plan.