By Amanda Durish Cook

FERC ordered MISO last week to revise its Tariff to ensure it is not overpaying for reactive power or show cause why it should not have to do so (EL16-61).

Currently, MISO can compensate resource owners for providing reactive supply and voltage control service, even after the units are deactivated or transferred to another owner.

During a Thursday Organization of MISO States board meeting, Chris Miller, of FERC’s Office of Energy Market Regulation, said the RTO would have a difficult time convincing the commission it should not make the change.

In 2014, the commission issued a similar order requiring PJM to stop making reactive power payments to retired generation.

FERC also directed MISO to “post to its website and maintain a chart that lists all resource owners whom receive compensation for reactive service along with their respective current reactive service revenue requirements.”

NRG Midwest to Repay PJM

In a related order, the commission ordered NRG Midwest to repay PJM with interest revenue the company received for reactive services at the Avon Lake coal plant over about three months after it deactivated one unit (ER16-1443).

Avon Lake’s Unit 7, located west of Cleveland on Lake Erie, was deactivated in mid-April but continued to collect reimbursement for reactive services while NRG Midwest’s April 18 revised rate schedule was pending. The closure of the unit reduced Avon Lake’s annual revenue requirement for reactive services by almost $163,000 to $1.6 million.

In the order, FERC accepted NRG’s adjusted revenue requirement for reactive services, which reflects the diminished generation at Avon Lake. FERC also created a new docket (EL16-72) to determine whether NRG’s reactive power rate for its fleet in the American Transmission Systems Inc. zone of PJM is reasonable.

In May, the commission approved revised reactive services rates for Constellation Power Source Generation in accordance with the 2014 order. (See “Constellation’s Reactive Payments Cut Due to Retirements,” FERC Rulings in Brief: Week of May 19.)