By Amanda Durish Cook
MISO has FERC’s permission to end a system support resource agreement in Michigan’s Upper Peninsula effective Nov. 26 (ER16-2528).
The order allows a transmission reconfiguration plan from American Transmission Co. to take the place of the White Pine Electric Power SSR agreement, which has cost local ratepayers about $6 million per year.
FERC’s decision cuts off revenue to the utility’s 20-MW coal-fired unit, which had been operating under the SSR designation since mid-2014. Under ATC’s plan, the transmission network in the western Upper Peninsula will be split into two separate load pockets. (See MISO Will Use ATC Plan to End Upper Peninsula SSR.) The dual, radial-fed configuration would only be used during planned maintenance on the area’s two 138-kV transmission lines.
Some MISO stakeholders argue that the plan introduces an increased risk of consequential load loss following a subsequent contingency, but the RTO maintains the risk is within NERC standards.
The Michigan Public Service Commission noted that while White Pine Unit 1 was called on only a “handful” times during its SSR agreement, it was entitled to receive about $4.7 million in 2014-2015, $7.3 million in 2015-2016 and $6.6 million in 2016-2017. The PSC also asked FERC to take the high poverty rates of Upper Peninsula ratepayers into consideration.
In a protest, White Pine accused MISO of a “hurried” reliability analysis that did not adequately study the possible “adverse reliability impacts” of severing the SSR agreement. The utility argued that Unit 1’s retirement would lead to more load curtailment, overloads in summer peak conditions and risk of voltage collapse. White Pine also said the SSR termination was not properly discussed in stakeholder meetings.
FERC rejected White Pine’s protest. It said it found “MISO appropriately studied and determined that the ATC transmission reconfiguration plan is a feasible alternative to the second revised White Pine SSR agreement and adequately involved stakeholders in that determination.”
