WILLIAM RAU

Ameren and MISO are playing politics
with state regulations, slow walking
Illinois into an electricity shortage

Past columns revealed Exelon crippling the Illinois Renewable Portfolio Standard and thus contributing to Illinois’ electricity shortage. Additionally, Exelon supports its grid operator’s (PJM) stalling actions on the SOO Green Transmission Line, which would import wind power to Chicagoland. Ameren Illinois and its grid operator also block renewables and energy storage. We now turn to them.
Ameren dislikes energy efficiency, demand response, and retail solar. All increase grid reliability by reducing peak demand while saving customers money that otherwise would flow to Ameren. Thus, during negotiations over the Future Energy Jobs Act (FEJA), Ameren opposed the bill’s efficiency goals. While ComEd agreed to 21.5% reduction in its electricity generation by 2030, Ameren jawboned its requirement down to 16%. Still unsatisfied after the law’s passage, it circumvented FEJA’s efficiency requirement by another 27% in its June 2017 efficiency report to the Illinois Commerce Commission — and the ICC acquiesced!
In 2020 Ameren attacked net metering which requires utilities to pay residential solar owners full retail prices for grid-provided electricity until retail solar generation reaches 5% of peak demand. Ameren declared to the ICC that residential solar output to its grid would reach 5% in late 2020 (statewide solar generation was below 1%). It therefore cut payments to new solar owners by 50% in October. Later, ICC reversed Ameren’s decision and ordered it to fully compensate new solar owners. Ameren had calculated the 5% cap by including in the numerator solar owners who were both municipal aggregation customers and its own electricity customers. The denominator included only its own customers, the much smaller entry in the numerator. Welcome to monopoly math where doggy enumerators pursue increased dividends for utility investors.
The Midcontinent Independent System Operator (MISO) is also doggy but more impactful because it oversees the utility grid for 15 states, including Ameren’s grid. MISO pursues lengthy delays in the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission’s (FERC) consumer-protecting regulations. A multistate business subject to the interstate commerce clause, MISO must follow FERC regulations. But FERC tends to adopt rules judiciously. Thus, when FERC ordered grid operators in 2018 to pay fair compensation for energy storage, MISO requested an extension until 2022 which FERC granted. However, FERC rejected MISO’s request for another extension to 2025. MISO argued that its 15 states would only add 600 megawatts of storage by 2040. However, as Table 1 shows, MISO’s queue of new generator applications through 2025 contains requests to approve 13,300 megawatts of standalone battery storage and 14,800 megawatts of solar or wind plus storage. Note also how MISO could fix our energy shortage by quickly reviewing the 14,454 megawatts of Illinois energy generation now awaiting approval (Table 1). This number exceeds our shortage by a factor of 5.
Next, MISO is averse to Distributed Energy Resources or DERs. A typical DER is residential solar + storage; it can store electricity during the afternoon for release during the evening peak. Since utilities barred DERs sales into peak markets, FERC ordered them to craft rules allowing DERs to do so. Most grid operators will begin rule implementation in 2024. And what about MISO? How about 2030.
Will FERC demand MISO implement its DER order sooner? We will know eventually, but this much is clear. MISO and Ameren are more concerned about ensuring high returns for utility investors than keeping air conditioners on during a heat wave.

Table 1. MISO Queue of Applications for Renewable
Interconnections: Megawatts, Sept. 7, 2022
Type Illinois MISO’s 15 States
Battery 925 13,301
Wind or Solar + Battery 3,089 14,813
Solar 7,062 73,575
Wind 3,378 15,123
Total 14,454 116,812
Source: MISO Interactive Queue;
https://www.misoenergy.org/planning/generator-interconnection/GI_Queue/gi-interactive-queue/

References
Dutton, Matt. 2017 (Sep 3; Oct 30, 2020). ICC approves Ameren proposal to lower energy efficiency goals. Herald-Whig; https://www.whig.com/archive/article/icc-approves-ameren-proposal-to-lower-energy-efficiency-goals/article_c8f4a801-9248-5241-8af7-8431e22adbfa.html
Funk, John. 2020 (Dec 7). Illinois rejects Ameren move to abandon full retail net metering for new home solar arrays. Utility Dive; https://www.utilitydive.com/news/illinois-rejects-ameren-move-to-abandon-full-retail-net-metering-for-new-ho/591651/
Konidena, Rao. 2022 (Feb 14). MISO surprises with FERC Order 2222 implementation date. Renewable Energy World; https://www.renewableenergyworld.com/solar/miso-surprises-with-ferc-order-2222-implementation-date/#gref
______. 2022 (Jun 24). Only utilities seem to like MISO’s DER implementation plan. Renewable Energy World; https://www.renewableenergyworld.com/solar/only-utilities-seem-to-like-misos-der-implementation-plan/
Plautz, Jason. 2021 (May 19). FERC rejects MISOs bid to extend storage order compliance deadline dismissing reliability concerns. Utility Dive; https://www.utilitydive.com/news/ferc-rejects-misos-bid-to-extend-storage-order-compliance-deadline-dismis/600407/