Clean Grid Alliance Applauds FERC Order on MISO ERAS Proposal

On Friday, May 16, the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (“FERC”) denied without prejudice the Midcontinent Independent System Operator (“MISO”) ERAS proposal. FERC’s difficult but necessary decision protects fundamental transmission open access policy and reinforces the need for a fair, careful, and transparent interconnection process for expedited resource additions.

MISO’s proposal would have improperly favored incumbent utilities while delaying critical renewable energy and storage projects and threatening reliability, FERC reaffirmed its commitment to long-standing market-based approaches to reliability and affordability. The failed proposal would have sidelined over 300 gigawatts of clean energy resources currently in MISO’s queue without meaningfully considering, much less addressing known and pressing challenges related to resource adequacy and reliability, such as bulk electric transmission constraints, natural gas pipeline constraints, or multiyear gas turbine backlogs.

FERC provided guidance in the order that MISO must now take back to stakeholders to discuss. “We welcome FERC’s guidance for a better path forward. Any new proposal should protect competition and reliability by prioritizing market-ready projects so that any desired resource adequacy or reliability benefits could be delivered to the intended state or utility service territory without harming other utilities’ ratepayers,” said David Sapper, Vice President of Transmission & Markets. “We look forward to continued work with MISO, states and other stakeholders."

CGA is committed to collaborating on a durable solution that accelerates clean energy while preserving competition and reliability and addresses actual Resource Adequacy and reliability issues.

Clean Grid Alliance | cleangridalliance.org