MISO wants FERC to reconsider its decision to let a jointly managed flowgate with SPP stand, with the RTO arguing the North Dakota cryptomining facility burdening the line is SPP’s responsibility alone.  

FERC in September denied MISO and Montana-Dakota Utilities Co.’s separate complaints over the Charlie Creek flowgate. The two wanted market-to-market (M2M) coordination lifted after the Atlas Power Data Center opened and brought a 200-MW load to SPP’s transmission-constrained northwestern North Dakota load pocket. MISO and MDU maintain the congestion management the data center is instigating shouldn’t extend beyond SPP. (See FERC Refuses MISO, MDU Complaints Regarding Crypto-strained MISO-SPP Flowgate.) 

In an Oct. 10 rehearing request, MISO continued to insist SPP is misapplying the two’s interregional coordination process in the joint operating agreement by insisting on interregional help for a provincial issue it is powerless to resolve (EL24-61).  

“By summarily rejecting the complaints, and by refusing to properly examine the evidence submitted by MISO and MDU, the Sept. 10 order failed to engage in reasoned decision-making, thereby allowing SPP’s unjust and unreasonable rate practice to continue unabated in violation of the FPA,” MISO said.  

MISO said its members have made more than $40 million in undue payments to SPP because of congestion on the flowgate. It pointed out the flowgate consists of two SPP transmission lines owned by the Western Area Power Administration in “a load pocket where the RTO has no regional flows and is unable to relieve congestion due to the lack of available generation.”  

MISO said it offered “extensive evidence demonstrating the local nature of congestion” in its original complaint and said SPP’s insistence on using M2M coordination to manage it is counter to good utility practice.  

MISO said FERC was wrong to read M2M coordination requirements as strictly those laid out in the joint operating agreement and not consider that the interregional coordination process dictates that M2M coordination should be reserved for issues that are regional, not local. 

“It is well-established that tariff and contract provisions should not be interpreted in isolation from each other,” the RTO argued.