FERC OFFICIAL AIMS TO TACKLE NIMBYISM: Elin Katz, FERC’s director of the relatively new Office of Public Participation, is thinking about how to avoid more disorderly forms of public engagement that have plagued FERC and the power sector in recent years — such as demonstrations and lawsuits against new energy infrastructure, including pipelines. She also hopes to better educate the public about the benefits of electric transmission in particular to mitigate the “NIMBYism” often associated with the large-scale power lines needed to decarbonize the power grid.

“One of my main goals is to provide a constructive outlet for public concerns,” she said during a webinar hosted by utility transmission group WIRES. “We've seen a lot of what I consider more disruptive activities around when the public becomes concerned about energy or infrastructure.”

...large, merchant interregional HVDC transmission lines that, although in non-emergencies are contractually dedicated to the interregional delivery of a pool of renewable resources to more distant loads, can nonetheless also be made available should explicitly designated contingencies arise such that the power from these different capacity sources can then be available to help mitigate the designated contingency -- even where such delivery could require the power to flow in the opposite direction from that called for in the usual schedules. For example, the GBX Line could have in place arrangements in advance that would allow any of the regional transmission systems to override its dispatch for a period of time so that the GBX Line could be dedicated to addressing contingencies when they arise. It will be important that these arrangements allow such transmission systems to relax the interconnection and/or
injection limits that may have been authorized for normal operations. For example, if the
prevailing dispatch would deliver Midwestern power to Eastern markets, there must be
arrangements in place to ensure that when necessary to schedule power in the opposite
direction, such Midwestern transmission system is not constrained from receiving such power based on interconnection or injection limits that might be in place during non-
contingencies.

Indeed, assuming the GBX Line was subscribed to its full capacity (approximately 4,000 MW), had only a fourth of its subscribers agreed in advance to be curtailed if required for certain emergencies, an additional 1,000 MW would have been available to the system operator to alleviate the shortages in local capacity resulting from the storm.

Grain Belt Express requests that the Commission initiate a study to value the reliability benefits that interregional merchant transmission lines will provide and develop a template of the types of tariff-based arrangements that the Commission would accept. The Commission should direct regional markets to: (1) establish products or services to capture those reliability and resilience benefits; (2) develop specific methodologies to place a value on these services; (3) confirm that transmission systems will be allowed to relax interconnection and/or injection limits for deliveries from interregional merchant transmission lines during system emergency conditions; (4) direct system planners to account for and adequately value interregional merchant transmission in planning efforts; and (5) when accounting for interregional merchant transmission in planning, properly allocate network upgrades required to integrate and interconnect interregional HVDC lines, consistent with beneficiary pays cost allocation principles.

"Many regions lack clear and consistent rules for the interconnection of transmission lines.
For instance, MISO currently allocates all transmission interconnection upgrade costs entirely to the customer, but may allocate a portion of those same upgrades to load if they were identified within the generator interconnection process, and some regions (i.e., SPP) have no applicable rules that govern injection from such lines. Grain Belt Express has experienced this first hand in developing an approximately 800-mile, 4,000 MW high voltage direct current transmission line that will interconnect in and carry power to and from the SPP, MISO and PJM regions. But its development is complicated by the lack of any consistent rules governing its interconnections in the different regions. And further complicating the process, MISO has refused to include Grain Belt Express’ interconnection positions as assumptions in the base case models and studies for its long-range transmission planning initiative (“LRTP”), which is intended to identify and address issues looking 10-20 years into the future. This refusal to account for the expected injections and withdrawals of an advanced-stage merchant transmission project not only complicates Grain Belt Express’ own development, it means that MISO’s LRTP results may themselves be flawed and inefficient.”

The growing threat of power outages fueled by extreme weather calls for new approaches to grid oversight, the head of the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission said yesterday, adding that utilities and grid operators should “think differently.”
In the face of droughts and heat waves worsened by climate change, the commission must advance new policies to modernize power markets, build more transmission lines and safeguard energy infrastructure, said FERC Chair Richard Glick. Regulators, energy providers and others also need to adjust to the “new normal” as extreme weather events become more common, according to Glick.
“The old way doesn’t work anymore. We need to figure out a new approach, a much more reliable approach, and that’s what we’re trying to do here at FERC,” he said.

While Glick, a Democrat, said the FERC report underscored the need for more transmission lines and changes in U.S. power markets, Republican commissioners highlighted how retiring fossil fuel power plants may be exacerbating reliability challenges.

The Midwestern grid region, for example, is at a “high risk” of power shortfalls due to a decline in generation capacity this year relative to last year. Power shortfalls could occur during extreme temperatures, during periods of low wind power or in the event of generation outages in the coming months, FERC staff said in a presentation on the findings.

The staff analysis showcased the need for more natural gas infrastructure to support generators, and for regulators to address state energy policies that are “reliability-impairing,” said Republican Commissioner James Danly. He also questioned whether more investments in the electric transmission system would solve the reliability challenges.

“There is, in the minds of some, an idea that as long as we get the transmission issue correct, everything else will eventually solve itself. I am simply a skeptic,” Danly said.

“There is clear, objective, conclusive data indicating that the pace of our grid transformation is out of sync with the underlying realities and physics of our system,” Christie said.

Based on my experience as a state regulator with IRPs and computer models purporting to predict the future two or more decades down the road, I regard 20-year projections of this sort as, at best, occasionally interesting, but they certainly provide no basis whatsoever for saddling consumers with the costs of a billion-dollar transmission line.

AFUDC is booked during the pre-service phases, but cannot be recovered from customers until the project is completed and actually serving customers, i.e., “used and useful.”  The NOPR proposal is simply in keeping with traditional good utility ratemaking principles.  Booking these costs as AFUDC also recognizes the reality that just because an LTRT project is selected for a regional plan, it still has to obtain all state siting, certificate of public convenience and necessity  and other, including environmental, approvals, and survive what may be the subsequent litigation, before it is actually built.

In a press conference after Thursday’s meeting, Glick said that active state involvement could help forestall state conflicts like those that have arisen in Missouri, where state lawmakers are seeking to pass a law that would threaten the viability of the Grain Belt Express, a massive proposed transmission project that would deliver power from Kansas across Missouri to the Illinois-Indiana border. 

The NOPR is ​“aimed at bringing the states together and hopefully developing their own approach to cost allocation,” Glick said. For example, ​“it might determine that State A and State C should pay for that line, not State B.”

PSC spokesperson Matthew Sweeney said the commission “has unique obligations and could have different interests and duties relating to transparency than former Commissioner Huebsch would have in his capacity as a private citizen,” which could have created a conflict of interest for PSC attorneys.

Huebsch, a former state legislator who served in Gov. Scott Walker’s cabinet before joining the PSC in 2015, says the messages were purely personal exchanges with old friends and that he never discussed PSC business outside of official proceedings.

Regardless of the results of the litigation the governmental unit, if it does not provide legal counsel to the defendant officer or employee, shall pay reasonable attorney fees and costs of defending the action, unless it is found by the court or jury that the defendant officer or employee did not act within the scope of employment.

The public service commission is authorized by s. 196.85, Stats., to charge any public utility, power district, or sewerage system the expenses attributable to the performance of the commission's duties.

Through his attorney, Huebsch blamed the plaintiffs for running up the tab on utility customers who will ultimately absorb the costs of defending the PSC’s decisions.

“The best outcome for ratepayers in Wisconsin and across the country would be for this unfounded ‘bias’ claim to be dismissed as soon as possible,” Huebsch said. “Every dime they have had to pay until now — including for the co-owners’ numerous law firms and PSC legal staff — is because of the plaintiffs and their choices.”

Huebsch said if the Supreme Court doesn’t throw out the bias claim, ratepayers will end up paying to litigate an “untold number of copycat ‘bias’ lawsuits.”

(A) LEADERSHIP.—A technical conference convened under paragraph (1) may be led by the members of the Commission.
(B) PARTICIPATION.—The Commission may invite to participate in a technical conference convened under paragraph (1)
representatives of residential ratepayers, transmission providers,
environmental justice and equity groups, Tribal communities,
Independent System Operators,
Regional Transmission Organizations, consumer protection groups,
renewable energy advocates,
State utility commission and energy offices, and such other entities as the Commission determines appropriate.

(b) REPRESENTATION.—The committee shall be composed of not more than 30 members, including--
(1) at least 2 representatives of end-use customers;
(2) at least 1 representative of transmission providers;
(3) at least 2 representatives of environmental justice and equity groups;
(4) at least 1 representative of Tribal communities;
(5) at least 1 representative of Independent System Operators;
(6) at least 1 representative of Regional Transmission Organizations;
(7) at least 1 representative of consumer protection groups;
(8) at least 2 representatives of renewable energy advocates;
(9) at least 1 representative of State commissions;
(10) at least 1 representative of public power entities;
(11) at least 1 representative of marketers; and
(12) at least 1 representative of generators.

(c) OFFICE OF PUBLIC PARTICIPATION.—The Commission shall consult the Office of Public Participation during the rulemaking process under subsection (a), including with respect to--(1) guidance on public participation requirements; (2) communications with the public concerning transmission planning that may impact local communities and land owners, including Tribal, indigenous, and environmental justice communities; and (3) minimum data transparency and access requirements.