FERC on Thursday affirmed the Henderson, Ky., municipal utility’s status as a transmission owner in the MISO region, ruling its facilities can be classified as transmission rather than distribution lines (ER19-776-001; ER19-809-001).

Big Rivers Electric Corp. has disputed Henderson Municipal Power and Light’s standing as a MISO transmission owner, arguing that the city’s lines are distributed in nature and that it shouldn’t share in Big Rivers’ transmission pricing zone.

FERC previously found in 2019 that Henderson’s 69-kV and 161-kV lines can be categorized as transmission, making the city a MISO transmission owner in the pricing zone. The utility is interconnected with Big Rivers’ transmission system.

The commission said it’s appropriate that Big Rivers “share its imputed revenues for its bundled load with Henderson for transmission service provided by the Henderson facilities.” FERC added that a joint pricing zone is appropriate in this instance because it provides for Henderson to recover revenue from the facilities’ physical location and is similar to MISO’s other joint pricing zones.

The commission said Big Rivers and Henderson should both have a stake in the pricing zone, despite Big Rivers’ reconfiguration of its system in 2019 by disconnecting a substation tie line between its facilities and Henderson’s.

FERC’s decision confirms an administrative law judge’s opinion last year.

MISO’s Board of Directors approved the transmission-owning membership of Henderson in 2018. The grid operator applied FERC’s seven-pronged transmission test under Order 888 to determine that most of Henderson’s system qualified as transmission. (See “6 Added to MISO Membership,” MISO Board of Directors Briefs: Dec. 6, 2018.)

Big Rivers in 2019 alleged that MISO presented for stakeholder review the results of the transmission test during a Planning Subcommittee meeting after it had already filed Henderson’s application as a transmission owner with FERC.