Chairman Richard Glick Statement
April 15, 2021
Docket No. ER20-2436-000 et al
Orders: E-4, E-5, E-6, and E-7
I support today’s orders accepting the revised, interim-period Generator Interconnection Agreements (GIAs) and Facilities Construction Agreements (FCAs) – and associated Facilities Service Agreements (FSAs) – because the agreements are generally consistent with the Midcontinent Independent System Operator, Inc. (MISO) pro forma agreements and reflect the state of the law today.
However, I write separately to reiterate my concern that giving transmission owners the discretion to unilaterally choose whether to self-fund network upgrades constructed on behalf of affiliated and non-affiliated interconnection customers may be unjust and unreasonable and unduly discriminatory or preferential.[1] The Commission failed to meaningfully wrestle with these concerns in its orders allowing transmission owners the unilateral right to choose up-front funding.[2]
I also continue to believe that the Commission was unwise to permit the reopening of numerous previously-negotiated interconnection agreements without engaging in meaningful balancing of the specific facts and equities presented and in the face of considerable evidence that allowing transmission owners and affected system operators to retroactively elect to self-fund the network upgrades associated with those agreements will result in substantial harm to interconnection customers.[3]
For these reasons, I respectfully concur.