If you're a person in the Grain Belt Express target zone who is currently being harangued and pursued to sign an easement, or perhaps a utility regulator being told that GBE is a sure thing, you might find this interesting.
About a month ago, Invenergy filed with FERC a "Request of Grain Belt Express LLC for Prospective Tariff Waiver, Expedited Action, and Shortened Comment Period."
The gist of this filing is that MISO has tendered an interconnection agreement for GBE and Invenergy only has 60 days to negotiate and sign it, or to file it unsigned. GBE's negotiation period ends December 31. GBE wants FERC to grant a waiver so that Invenergy can wait until some time next year to sign the agreement and make two large deposits for the transmission upgrades its GBE project will cause.
GBE has applied at MISO for both interconnection of its project and injection rights. Interconnection and injection rights are two separate things. Interconnection allows GBE to connect to MISO's existing system, but injection rights allows GBE to inject a certain amount of electricity into MISO at the interconnection site. Both the interconnection and injection rights require MISO study to identify and plan any upgrades to the system that they will cause. Interconnection and injection rights run on two different study tracks. MISO determined that GBE's interconnection will require approximately $144,248,000 worth of work to the existing system to support the interconnection. However, MISO has not yet completed the study that will determine the cost of the injection rights work, although GBE estimates it will be an additional more than $177 million. GBE wants to know the injection rights number before it negotiates and signs the interconnection agreement, because once it signs the agreement it is obligated to make non-refundable deposits totaling approximately $77 million before it knows the injection rights number.
Let that sink in... Invenergy doesn't want to spend money on a project without knowing its full cost. As Invenergy puts it
About a month ago, Invenergy filed with FERC a "Request of Grain Belt Express LLC for Prospective Tariff Waiver, Expedited Action, and Shortened Comment Period."
The gist of this filing is that MISO has tendered an interconnection agreement for GBE and Invenergy only has 60 days to negotiate and sign it, or to file it unsigned. GBE's negotiation period ends December 31. GBE wants FERC to grant a waiver so that Invenergy can wait until some time next year to sign the agreement and make two large deposits for the transmission upgrades its GBE project will cause.
GBE has applied at MISO for both interconnection of its project and injection rights. Interconnection and injection rights are two separate things. Interconnection allows GBE to connect to MISO's existing system, but injection rights allows GBE to inject a certain amount of electricity into MISO at the interconnection site. Both the interconnection and injection rights require MISO study to identify and plan any upgrades to the system that they will cause. Interconnection and injection rights run on two different study tracks. MISO determined that GBE's interconnection will require approximately $144,248,000 worth of work to the existing system to support the interconnection. However, MISO has not yet completed the study that will determine the cost of the injection rights work, although GBE estimates it will be an additional more than $177 million. GBE wants to know the injection rights number before it negotiates and signs the interconnection agreement, because once it signs the agreement it is obligated to make non-refundable deposits totaling approximately $77 million before it knows the injection rights number.
Let that sink in... Invenergy doesn't want to spend money on a project without knowing its full cost. As Invenergy puts it
Otherwise, GBX will be placed in the position of having to decide whether to commit millions of dollars in security or cash pursuant to the executed TCA before it understands its total upgrade cost exposure associated with the Injection Rights.
This would have absolutely no relevance if there was not the possibility that Invenergy would cancel this project if the injection rights end up costing too much. If Invenergy is going to proceed with GBE no matter how much injection rights cost, then the deposits don't matter. The deposits would only represent a loss for Invenergy if it cancelled the project.
Apparently Invenergy is not going to know whether its project is going to proceed until at least the end of April, 2023. But yet there are reports that Invenergy is filing eminent domain suits and taking landowners to court. And, of course, Invenergy is pushing state regulators to approve its project in a big ol' hurry, even though Invenergy wants another 5 months to decide if its even going to proceed with interconnection to the existing transmission system (and that's if MISO's study gets completed on time, which in these days of clogged interconnection queues may not happen).
Invenergy says having to put up cash as surety for its project is "too risky" for the company but taking your land via eminent domain isn't risky at all for Invenergy. It's all about who bears the real risk, isn't it?
Apparently Invenergy is not going to know whether its project is going to proceed until at least the end of April, 2023. But yet there are reports that Invenergy is filing eminent domain suits and taking landowners to court. And, of course, Invenergy is pushing state regulators to approve its project in a big ol' hurry, even though Invenergy wants another 5 months to decide if its even going to proceed with interconnection to the existing transmission system (and that's if MISO's study gets completed on time, which in these days of clogged interconnection queues may not happen).
Invenergy says having to put up cash as surety for its project is "too risky" for the company but taking your land via eminent domain isn't risky at all for Invenergy. It's all about who bears the real risk, isn't it?
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