FERC denied MISO’s request for clarification and rehearing of a May 2015 order concerning the RTO’s request for waivers from the requirements of Order 676-H, which incorporated into commission regulations the North American Energy Standards Board’s latest Standards for Business Practices and Communication Protocols (ER15-548-001).

“We disagree with MISO’s argument that the commission’s policy regarding the point at which a redirect customer loses rights to its original path was unclear until the issuance of Order No. 676-H,” the commission said, adding that the policy was announced in 2002.

FERC Directs MISO to Specify SSR Cost Allocations, Interconnection Transfer Rights

FERC denied rehearing but granted clarification of a July 2014 order that conditionally accepted MISO’s Tariff revisions regarding system support resource procedures (ER12-2302).

The commission agreed with MISO that its order was unclear, clarifying that the RTO’s Tariff must “provide specific guidance about the contractual commitments required of generation and demand-side resource alternatives, and general guidance about how MISO will evaluate whether contractual commitments required for additional types of resources are comparable to the commitments that apply to transmission solutions.” The commission said MISO’s September 2014 compliance filing generally met the directive.

“However, we note that MISO’s proposed revisions providing that a ‘generator alternative may be a new generator, or an increase to existing generator capacity’ do not address the situation where an existing generator, which is not available at the time of SSR designation and is subsequently made available, can be selected as an alternative solution,” FERC said. It ordered MISO to submit a compliance filing within 45 days revising its Tariff to allow an existing generator to be considered as a generator alternative.

The commission also granted Wisconsin Electric Power’s request for clarification, ruling that MISO must allocate SSR costs to the load-serving entities that require the operation of the SSR units for reliability. FERC said it agreed with Wisconsin Electric’s concern that MISO’s method for cost allocation “can produce results that are not consistent with MISO’s Tariff or cost-causation principles.”

PATH Ruling on RTO Adder Affirmed

The commission denied Potomac-Appalachian Transmission Highline’s (PATH) request for rehearing of a November 2012 order denying the transmission developer continued application of the 50-basis-point incentive for membership in PJM (ER12-2708-002, ER09-1256-001).

The commission said that PATH — a joint venture formed by American Electric Power and Allegheny Energy (now FirstEnergy) to build a $1.8 billion transmission line between West Virginia and Maryland — was no longer eligible for the adder after PJM canceled the project in 2012.

The commission said its earlier order was consistent with existing policy, denying PATH’s complaint that it had acted retroactively.

In September, a FERC administrative law judge recommended the developers be denied recovery of more than $10 million of their $121.5 million project recovery claim. The judge recommended the commission deny recovery of lobbying and advertising costs as well as part of their legal costs and losses on the sale of the property they acquired.

The commission, which can accept the recommendations in whole or in part, has not acted on the ruling. (See FERC ALJ Rejects $10 Million in PATH Transmission Project Recovery.)

— Amanda Durish Cook and Rich Heidorn Jr.