FERC has given the Palisades Nuclear Plant special permission to exceed MISO’s 36-month limit on generator suspensions as owner Holtec International works through the plant’s reopening.
The commission decided Feb. 28 that Holtec can use a 22-month extension on top of the RTO’s three-year limit to bring Palisades back online (ER25-1083).
The MISO tariff limits generation suspensions to a cumulative 36-month maximum over a five-year span. After reaching the limit, generators are expected to return to service or risk termination of interconnection service.
Holtec told FERC that its plan to return Palisades to service was not crystalized until April 2024. Previous owner Entergy placed Palisades in suspension status with MISO in 2022.
FERC’s leeway means Holtec now has until March 1, 2027 — instead of May 20, 2025 — to start the reactor under MISO’s rules. Holtec is currently navigating a recommissioning process with the Nuclear Regulatory Commission and hopes to have the plant online in October at the earliest. (See Anti-nuclear Groups Challenge Palisades Reopening.)
Holtec argued that if it was not granted the extra time and lost its interconnection rights with MISO member Michigan Electric Transmission Co., it could result in “substantial delays or potential loss of baseload generation critically needed to support resource adequacy in the MISO region.”
The Michigan Public Service Commission filed comments in support of the waiver.
Holtec also said it is preparing a new generator interconnection agreement to file with MISO that will lay out expectations and associated deadlines on the path to reactivating the partly decommissioned nuclear plant.
FERC said Holtec seemed to act in good faith and that a continuation of the Palisades suspension without terminating interconnection service would not harm any third parties. On the other hand, the commission said that disconnecting Palisades from the MISO system would “jeopardize the recommissioning timeline.” The commission noted that, according to Holtec, Palisades’ reopen will not require network upgrades. It also said it had Holtec’s word that MISO verified the 22-month waiver would not present “reliability concerns or interconnection queue management issues.”
