A complaint from utility regulators in five states challenging a major slate of transmission projects could jeopardize $4.1 billion of planned investment in Wisconsin.
Public service commissions in Arkansas, Louisiana, Mississippi, North Dakota and Montana filed a complaint with the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission late last month, challenging the approval of 24 high-voltage transmission projects.
The Midwest grid operator — Midcontinent Independent System Operator, or MISO — approved roughly $22 billion in long-range transmission projects late last year.
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MISO’s plan includes six long-term reliability projects located entirely or partially in Wisconsin, totaling $4.1 billion in investment in the state, according to the nonprofit Union of Concerned Scientists. Those include two new transmission lines from Minnesota and Illinois, portions of other new lines, building new substations and upgrading existing substations.
In the July 30 complaint, the states said MISO’s plan overstates the value of the projects and underestimates their costs.
They asked federal regulators to reclassify the projects to make them ineligible for cost sharing across the MISO region. But three of the five states that filed the complaint are not expected to face any costs related to the transmission plan.
If states and utilities that will rely on planned projects to meet renewable energy and decarbonization goals “agree to be responsible for their costs, then MISO may direct these projects to be built,” the complaint reads.
MISO responded in a federal regulatory filing on Tuesday, saying the transmission plan isn’t only important to renewable energy goals but also to meet growing electricity demand related to the deployment of artificial intelligence and support economic development.
The grid operator also called the complaint “misleading” and warned it threatens needed infrastructure.
“The Complaint jeopardizes the ability of MISO and its state partners to support the anticipated growth in electricity demand and would increase costs to customers within the MISO region by replacing an efficient, regional solution with a piecemeal one,” the grid operator’s response reads.
John Norris, who served on the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission from 2010 to 2014, said the planned transmission projects would, at minimum, be delayed if the complaint is successful.
Norris said he hopes they won’t be outright canceled because the need for reliable electricity isn’t going to decline.
“We can’t meet our energy needs going forward if projects like this aren’t done, so I can’t imagine it will eliminate them forever,” he said. “But the cost associated with delaying them is monumental.”
Of the states listed in the complaint, only North Dakota and Montana are included in the MISO plan being challenged, according to the grid operator’s federal filing. Both will “significantly benefit” in “exchange for a very small percentage of the costs,” according to the filing
Louisiana, Arkansas and Mississippi have no projects that are part of the plan and “will not be allocated any costs,” the filing said.
Yvonne Cappel-Vickery, clean grid manager for the Louisiana-based nonprofit Alliance for Affordable Energy, said the effort will end up costing customers in those southern states regardless of what happens.
“We’re spending money on consultants and advisors to stop something that was never going to impact us to begin with,” she said.
The Public Service Commission of Wisconsin declined to comment. But the state PSC signed onto a regulatory filing with utility regulators in Illinois, Michigan and Minnesota opposing the complaint and siding with the regional grid operator.
The upper Midwest states argued that the five state commissions “do not speak for all states in the MISO region.” Their filing said the planned transmission projects will produce “savings for utility customers and help maintain reliability as load continues to grow.”
Ciaran Gallagher, energy and air manager for environmental nonprofit Clean Wisconsin, said she does “not have faith” that the transmission projects in Wisconsin will be built if the complaint succeeds.
In Wisconsin, MISO estimates construction will generate between 4,000 and 12,257 jobs and between $817 million to $4.5 billion in economic output.
“These lines are, frankly, more needed than they were when they were initially planned,” Gallagher said. “Transmission is one of the most cost effective ways to cope with this exponentially rising demand for electricity that we’re seeing.”
Ryan Huebsch, executive director of the Wisconsin Conservative Energy Forum, said the transmission projects included in MISO’s plan would help ensure continued reliability of Wisconsin’s electric grid.
Huebsch also said data centers and manufacturers both rely on reliable electricity. If reliability is impacted by transmission projects falling through, he fears developers could look to build their facilities in other states.
“I think we might see them fall away because we’re not bringing in the energy that we need,” he said. “If this project falls through, definitely they’re going to be running for the hills.”
Citizens Utility Boards in Michigan, Minnesota and Illinois also filed testimony in support of MISO’s plan, saying it “promises significant cost savings and reliability benefits.” The groups also said they expect the plan to have “a favorable impact on residential ratepayer costs.”
The Citizens Utility Board of Wisconsin, meanwhile, took a slightly different position. In a statement, Tom Content, the group’s executive director, said his organization sees the “net benefits” of the planned transmission lines.
But Content also stated his organization has concerns about the planning process and modeling the grid operator uses.
“The MISO planning process needs enhancements and more representation at the table for the consumers paying the bills, to ensure the ultimate plan reflects the dynamic changes going on in the utility industry right now with the advent of energy-intensive data centers in Wisconsin and around the Great Lakes region,” he said.
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