By Amanda Durish Cook

FERC last week rejected Michigan Electric Transmission Co.’s rehearing request regarding a western Michigan wind farm’s interconnection agreement with MISO (ER16-33-001).

The April 6 order concerns Consumers Energy’s 100-MW Lake Winds Energy Park, which went into operation in 2012. METC argued that the generator interconnection agreement was executed in violation of MISO’s queue procedures and FERC Order 2003, which standardized interconnection agreements.

Lake Winds is interconnected to power lines that were classified as state-jurisdictional distribution facilities when it went into operation. Last April, FERC granted Consumers’ request to reclassify those lines to commission-jurisdictional transmission facilities.

METC said the order created a “jurisdictional loophole in the commission’s interconnection rules” because it permitted a wholesale generator to follow state interconnection procedures.

“What METC argues is a ‘loophole’ is a description of the jurisdictional boundary between federal and state interconnection rules, including Order No. 2003,” FERC wrote in rejecting its request.

FERC also said Order 2003 doesn’t apply to the MISO and Lake Winds GIA. “Order No. 2003 did not govern the interconnection of the Lake Winds facility in 2012, and therefore MISO’s queue procedures implementing Order No. 2003 similarly did not govern the project’s interconnection at that time,” the commission wrote.

METC had argued that the commission’s determination that Lake Winds’ interconnection was not subject to Order 2003 was arbitrary and capricious.