A Wisconsin coal plant kept online for the sake of reliability will receive smaller monthly payments from MISO, FERC ruled in a settlement approval last week.
Under the settlement, Manitowoc Public Utilities will collect $880,000 per month, totaling about $10.5 million annually, for the term of its System Support Resource (SSR) agreement on its 63-MW Lakefront 9 unit (ER23-977). FERC said the amount was more appropriate than the $1.03 million in monthly compensation to keep the plant running the utility originally proposed. (See FERC Approves SSR Agreement for Wisconsin Coal Plant.)
Manitowoc Public Utilities will receive about $1.8 million less per year than it requested.
The company’s Lakefront 9 began operating as an SSR in February 2023 after MISO found that thermal overloading and voltage issues could occur on several nearby constraints if the plant was permitted to suspend operations as scheduled. The utility wanted to idle Lakefront 9 until 2026 to convert it to a renewable fuel source.
MISO has one other active SSR designation in its Midwest region. The RTO may keep Ameren Missouri’s 1.2-GW Rush Island coal plant online until sometime in 2025 for reliability reasons. (See MISO Poised to Extend Missouri Coal Plant’s Life.)
MISO enacts its SSRs agreements in one-year increments and evaluates the need for them annually until it finds the system is stable enough to lift them.
