Major U.S. Grid Operator Quickly Resubmits Discriminatory Energy Plan to FERC

Washington, D.C. —

Less than a month after the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) denied Midcontinent Independent System Operator’s (MISO) discriminatory energy plan, the grid operator ran roughshod on the stakeholder process and resubmitted an updated discriminatory plan with federal regulators. There are issues with both the content of MISO’s updated Expedited Resource Addition Study (ERAS) proposal and its process.

Although MISO adopted FERC’s suggestion to cap the size of ERAS projects, the grid operator still proposes a plan that will take place over many years and fails to justify the cap size it chose. Additionally, MISO’s second attempt at ERAS became unjustifiably more discriminatory toward wind and solar, costing these projects both time and money if they reach the construction phase. The grid operator addressed some of FERC’s concerns, however, the proposal remains deeply flawed with few guardrails to ensure expedited projects are actually needed because MISO has yet to justify its alleged emergency.

FERC denied a request by this coalition for an extension of MISO’s fast-tracked process, which limits the ability of stakeholders, including state regulators, to provide robust feedback on its nearly 1,000 page revised ERAS proposal. And its new ERAS proposal was finalized after a single stakeholder meeting that only allowed one round of Q&A and an informal exchange of ideas on how to improve the first discriminatory plan. Many states do not have the power or authority to respond with feedback on the timeline MISO provided. The 10-day comment period includes two weekends, giving all stakeholders only six working days to evaluate and provide feedback on its new, discriminatory proposal.

The groups protesting MISO’s second ERAS filing include Clean Wisconsin, Natural Resources Defense Council, Sierra Club, Sustainable FERC Project, and Union of Concerned Scientists.

Statement from Greg Wannier, Senior Attorney with Sierra Club:

In rejecting MISO’s first ERAS proposal, FERC gave MISO clear guidance that it does not have free license to discriminate, or to help utilities fast-track their gas plant projects at the cost of the more than 200 gigawatts of clean energy projects that are waiting their turn to interconnect.  Unfortunately, MISO has ignored that guidance and chosen instead to double down on an unnecessary, needlessly discriminatory, and overbroad proposal that it developed in a rushed process and with minimal stakeholder input. FERC should reject MISO’s revised ERAS proposal for most of the same reasons it rejected the initial one.

Statement from Ada Statler, Senior Associate Attorney with Earthjustice:

In MISO’s rush to re-file its proposal, it failed to truly address the Commission’s concerns, or to incorporate feedback from member states, consumer advocates, environmentalists, and other stakeholders. The Commission should reject MISO’s revised ERAS proposal, which would fast-track gas power plants without justification and risk delaying the clean energy projects that have long been waiting in MISO’s interconnection queue.

Statement from Ciaran Gallagher, Energy & Air Manager with Clean Wisconsin:

“Energy emergency” is being used to justify discriminating against cheap and available solar and wind energy. MISO’s revised ERAS proposal still does not establish that there is a true energy emergency in the region nor does it establish standards that ensure the fast-tracking gas proposal would solve the supposed resource adequacy problems.