FERC last week granted a waiver to several renewable energy projects that allows their developers to circumvent MISO’s fee distribution after one of the projects dropped out of the RTO’s interconnection queue.
The commission said in its Jan. 20 order that it granted the waiver because the project negotiations with MISO resulted in a “mutually agreeable solution” that makes the other projects whole for any increased upgrade costs after EDP Renewables withdrew its Shullsburg Wind Farm (ER23-404).
EDP challenged MISO’s calculation of the monetary harm inflicted on three other wind farms with its withdrawal and termination of its generator interconnection agreement with the RTO and American Transmission Co. (ATC) in 2020.
When a generation project in MISO’s queue withdraws, staff analyzes the financial impact on remaining interconnection requests in the same study cycle by calculating network upgrades costs that are shifted to those projects. The grid operator then uses the milestone payments made during the definitive planning phase or payments made by interconnection customers to reimburse remaining projects for any upgrade costs caused by the withdrawal.
MISO determined that five other projects hoping to interconnect to ATC’s system were financially affected by the withdrawal. Two of those waived their rights because their projects were insignificantly affected.
The Shullsburg facility contested MISO’s calculations and initiated an alternative dispute resolution process in 2021. Shullsburg ultimately reached a confidential agreement between it and the three remaining projects, the companies said.
MISO said it has some reservations about the agreement because the three remaining projects aren’t guaranteed reimbursement unless they “make a certain type of sales to certain customers.” However, the grid operator said it supports the agreement because it allows the distribution of agreed-upon harm payments to the projects.
The RTO also said the agreement allows it to hold in escrow the payments Shullsburg made while in the queue until the three projects become operational.
