By Amanda Durish Cook

FERC last week rejected two complaints alleging that MISO overcharged for through-and-out transmission on the MISO South system.

The nearly identical complaints originated from Morgan Stanley Capital Group and eight Entergy export customers, including several Southern Co. utilities and the Springfield, Mo.-based Associated Electric Cooperative Inc. (AECI). The complainants claimed that the power they received from Entergy’s territory was overpriced, violating the grid operator’s no-cost-sharing rule and section 206 of the Federal Power Act. They sought refunds from Dec. 19, 2013, when Entergy transferred control of its transmission facilities to MISO. The parties also asked for an investigation if FERC found improprieties.

FERC found that the through-and-out transaction rates did not violate MISO’s Tariff because the no-cost-sharing-rule found in Tariff attachment FF-6 doesn’t apply to through-and-out charges (EL15-66, EL15-77). The commission also decided the complaints were “duplicative” because the justness and reasonableness of the rates under section 206 is already being challenged by AECI (EL14-19).

That case opposes current through-and-out transmission rates under recent MISO Tariff revisions that provide a five-year transition period “governing regional allocation of network upgrades.” MISO filed for the Tariff changes with FERC in mid-2013 after Entergy moved to MISO control.

“Commission precedent prohibits the filing of successive complaints that seek to re-litigate the same issue absent new evidence or changed circumstances,” FERC wrote.

The complaints said that since the MISO integration, the charges for long-term firm point-to-point transmission service have risen from an average of $1.78/kW-month to $3.45/kW-month.

In its complaint, Morgan Stanley said it was unjust for MISO to apply differing transmission rates to customers based on if they have a sink in or out of the RTO. The company said MISO’s cost assessments are discriminatory because MISO is excluding “MISO Midwest costs from transmission rates charged to former Entergy customers that have a sink in MISO South but is not excluding such costs from former Entergy customers that sink outside of MISO South.” The company also said that customers that sink in SPP are being treated differently than those that sink in PJM.

MISO said the complaints overlooked elimination of its pancaked rate as a result of Entergy’s integration.

“MISO and Entergy state that the purpose of applying an average system-wide rate to through-and-out service is to treat all competitors for a specific load the same. In MISO’s view, complainants are asking the commission to grant them a preferential rate not available to other similarly situated customers,” MISO stated.