By Amanda Durish Cook

FERC last week rejected all challenges to system support resource rate schedules for three aging power plants in Michigan’s Upper Peninsula.

The commission upheld MISO’s SSR cost allocation for the Presque Isle, Escanaba and White Pines power plants (ER14-2952, et al.), rejecting requests for rehearing from a dozen parties, including the Michigan Public Service Commission, the City of Mackinac Island, the Sault Ste. Marie Tribe of Chippewa Indians, Upper Peninsula Power Co., the City of Escanaba and Cloverland Electric Cooperative.

FERC also accepted MISO’s compliance filing, which detailed the calculation for load distribution factors. The RTO also eliminated a proposal to select load buses that have an 80% effect on transmission constraints as SSR unit beneficiaries.

In September, FERC generally accepted MISO’s SSR cost allocation methodology, saying it “assigns SSR costs directly to load-serving entities serving loads that would contribute to thermal or voltage reliability violations in the absence of the Presque Isle, Escanaba and White Pine SSR units.” (See FERC OKs MISO’s SSR Allocation for 3 Plants.)

The approved cost allocation took the place of an optimization-load balancing authority approach found in MISO’s Business Practices Manuals. While FERC defended the new allocation on several fronts, it ordered MISO to file a report by mid-June that details how the RTO plans to distribute refunds to LSEs overcharged under the former approach. The commission said it would address arguments over effective dates and refund obligations “upon the filing of the refund report.”