Protest of Iowa Office of Consumer Advocate et al. re Midcontinent Independent System Operator, Inc.'s 08/28/2026 filing
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UNITED STATES OF AMERICA BEFORE THE FEDERAL ENERGY REGULATORY COMMISSION ) Midcontinent Independent System ) Docket ER26-3650-000 Operator, Inc. ) ) JOINT PROTEST OF THE IOWA OFFICE OF THE CONSUMER ADVOCATE, OFFICE OF THE ILLINOIS ATTORNEY GENERAL, Illinois Citizens Utility Board, MICHIGAN ATTORNEY GENERAL, MICHIGAN CITIZENS UTILITY BOARD, MINNESOTA DEPARTMENT OF COMMERCE, mINNESOTA CITIZENS UTILITY BOARD, WISCONSIN CITIZENS UTILITY BOARD, Citizens Action Coalition of Indiana, INC., and Alliance for Affordable Energy Pursuant to Rule 211 the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission’s (“Commission”) Rules of Practice and Procedure, 18 C.F.R. section 385.211 and the August 31, 2026 Combined Notice of Filings #1, the Iowa Office of Consumer Advocate (“Iowa OCA”), Office of the Illinois Attorney General (“IL OAG”), Illinois Citizens Utility Board (“IL CUB”), Michigan Attorney General, Michigan Citizens Utility Board (“MI CUB”), Minnesota Department of Commerce (“Commerce”), Citizens Utility Board of Minnesota (“MN CUB”), Wisconsin Citizens Utility Board (“WI CUB”), Citizens Action Coalition of Indiana, Inc., and Alliance for Affordable Energy respectfully submit this Protest in the above-captioned proceeding. PROTEST The Iowa OCA, IL OAG, IL CUB, Michigan Attorney General, MI CUB, Commerce, MN CUB, WI CUB, Citizens Action Coalition of Indiana, Inc., and Alliance for Affordable Energy (“Joint Protestors”) submit this Protest regarding the proposed tariff revisions filed by MISO regarding Interconnection Reliability Requirements for Large Loads with the Commission in the above-captioned action.[fn:1] On August 28, 2026, MISO filed proposed revisions to its Open Access Transmission, Energy, and Operating Reserves Markets Tariff (“Tariff”) to establish certain Interconnection Reliability Requirements for Large Loads. As noted in its transmittal letter, MISO’s filing purports to respond to several concerns raised by the Commission in its Show Cause Order in Docket No. EL26-70-000. Specifically, MISO proposes visibility, ramp rate, and disturbance ride-through requirements for Large Loads, as well as grandfathering transition provisions designed to minimize disruption to existing commercial arrangements. As demonstrated below, MISO’s proposed Tariff grandfathering transition provisions under Section 37A, discussed at pages 13 and 14 of the transmittal letter do not address the cost-shifting concerns expressed by the Commission in the Show Cause Order. In the Show Cause Order, the Commission found MISO’s Tariff “appears to be unjust and unreasonable because it lacks adequate mechanisms to mitigate the risk of cost shifting among transmission customers, which may result in unjust and unreasonable rates for transmission service.” Show Cause Order at P 66. In the ruling, the Commission expressed concern about the lack of transparency regarding the assignment of costs, including Network Upgrades, necessary to provide transmission service to Eligible Customers or Large Load Customers on behalf of Large Loads to ensure Eligible Customers bear the risk and are ultimately responsible for costs incurred to provide transmission service, including the cost of Network Upgrades. Id. at PP 70-77. MISO is proposing to fully exempt or “grandfather” any Large Load with a service commencement date on or prior to December 4, 2026, from all requirements of proposed Section 37A. MISO is also proposing to partially exempt a Large Load or portion of a Large Load, that does not have a Service Commencement Date prior to December 4, 2026, but that meets the MTEP/EPR Condition from the ramp and ride-through requirements set forth in Sections 37A.6 through 37A.7. The proposal fully or partially exempts approximately 30 gigawatts of existing and in-flight capacity based on an arbitrary date.[fn:2] The Joint Protestors are concerned the proposed grandfathering terms would exempt a large portion of the new large data center loads in Iowa and potentially other MISO regions from the reliability protections proposed in MISO’s filing. Additionally, if this exemption is carried forward to the series of future Federal Power Act section 205 filings that MISO intends to make in response to the Show Cause Order, this could deprive electric consumers of the cost shifting and other consumer protections that MISO has been directed to address in the Show Cause Order. Large Loads have reliability impacts regardless of operational date. Under proposed Section 37A, MISO cannot mandate a grandfathered facility install facility-side hardware protections to prevent severe spikes and triggering system protections from cascading through the grid, shifting the burden to the bulk electric system. Under this proposal, local electric utilities will be forced to remedy the problem by building expensive, large-scale system and network reliability upgrades to cushion the grid against sudden destabilizing effects. The cost of these system and network reliability upgrades will be passed onto other customers and will not be assigned to the Large Load, the cost-causer. This will force captive ratepayers to subsidize the integration of Large Loads, violating the core principles of cost causation. If the Commission allows MISO to fully or partially exempt or “grandfather” any Large Load from all requirements of the proposed Section 37A, the costs associated with local reliability projects will not be assigned to the Large Load customer, the cost-causer. Local reliability costs caused or materially accelerated by a Large Load should follow the cost-causer, the Large Load customer. Broader allocation of costs to other customers should occur only if the other customers receive commensurate benefits. Moreover, Large Load customers, and not other customers, should bear the risk if the load does not materialize as planned. MISO’s Show Cause proposals should apply to any incremental large new load, as defined in this filing, that comes online after December 4, 2026. WHEREFORE, the Iowa OCA, IL OAG, IL CUB, Michigan Attorney General, MI CUB, Commerce, MN CUB, WI CUB, Citizens Action Coalition of Indiana, Inc., and Alliance for Affordable Energy pray the Commission reject MISO’s proposed Tariff grandfathering transition provisions under Section 37A, to ensure Large Load customers bear the cost and risk of all costs caused by the Large Load customer, and for any additional relief Commission deems appropriate under the circumstances. Respectfully submitted, /s/ Jennifer Easler /s/ Heather L. Palmer Jennifer Easler Heather L. Palmer Attorney Attorney Iowa Attorney General Iowa Attorney General Office of the Consumer Advocate Office of the Consumer Advocate 1375 East Court Avenue 1375 East Court Avenue Des Moines, IA 50319 Des Moines, IA 50319 Jennifer.Easler@oca.iowa.gov Heather.Palmer@oca.iowa.gov Attorneys for Iowa Office of the Consumer Advocate /s/ Susan L. Satter /s/ Samuel C. Lukens Susan L. Satter Samuel C. Lukens Bureau Chief Assistant Attorney General Public Utilities Bureau Public Utilities Bureau Office of the Illinois Attorney General Office of the Illinois Attorney General 115 South LaSalle Street, 25th Floor 115 South LaSalle, 25th Floor Chicago, IL 60603 Chicago, IL 60603 susan.satter@ilag.gov samuel.lukens@ilag.gov Attorneys for the Office of the Illinois Attorney General /s/ Sarah Moskowitz /s/ Eric DeBellis Sarah Moskowitz Eric DeBellis Executive Director General Counsel Illinois Citizens Utility Board Illinois Citizens Utility Board 309 West Washington Street, Suite 800 309 West Washington Street, Suite 800 Chicago, IL 60606 Chicago, IL 60606 smoskowitz@citizensutilityboard.org edebellis@citizensutilityboard.org For the Illinois Citizens Utility Board /s/ Michael E. Moody /s/ John Liskey Michael E. Moody John Liskey Special Litigation Division Chief General Counsel Assistant Attorney General Citizens Utility Board of Michigan Michigan Department of Attorney General 921 North Washington Avenue P.O. Box 30212 Lansing, MI 48906 Lansing, MI 48909 john.liskey@cubofmichigan.org Moodym2@michigan.gov Attorney for the Michigan Attorney for the Citizens Utility Attorney General Board of Michigan /s/ Sydnie Lieb /s/ Brandon Crawford Sydnie Lieb Brandon Crawford Assistant Commissioner of Regulatory Regulatory Advocate Affairs, Energy Resources Division Citizens Utility Board of Minnesota Minnesota Department of Commerce 332 Minnesota Street, Suite W1360 85 7th Place East, Suite 280 Saint Paul, MN 55101 Saint Paul, MN 55101 brandonc@cubminnesota.org Sydnie.Lieb@state.mn.us For the Minnesota Department of For the Citizens Utility Board of Commerce Minnesota /s/ Corey Singletary /s/ Daniel Narvey Corey Singletary Daniel Narvey Executive Director General Counsel Citizens Utility Board of Wisconsin Citizens Utility Board of Wisconsin 625 North Segoe Road, Suite 101 625 North Segoe Road, Suite 101 Madison, WI 53705 Madison, WI 53705 singletary@cubwi.org narvey@cubwi.org For the Citizens Utility Board of Wisconsin Kewin L. Olson Jennifer A. Washburn Executive Director Regulatory Director Citizens Action Coalition of Indiana, Inc. Citizens Action Coalition of Indiana, Inc. 1915 West 18th Street, Suite C 1915 West 18th Street, Suite C Indianapolis, IN 46202 Indianapolis, IN 46202 kolson@citact.org jwashburn@citact.org For the Citizens Action Coalition of Indiana, Inc. /s/ Yvonne Cappel-Vickery Yvonne Cappel-Vickery Clean Grid Manager Alliance for Affordable Energy 4505 South Claiborne Avenue New Orleans, LA 70125 yvonne@all4energy.org For the Alliance for Affordable Energy Dated: September 18, 2026 CERTIFICATE OF SERVICE I hereby certify that I have this day served the foregoing document upon each person designated on the official service list compiled by the Secretary in this proceeding. Dated at this 18th day of September, 2026. Heather L. Palmer Heather L. Palmer Attorney Office of Consumer Advocate of Iowa 1375 East Court Avenue Des Moines, IA 50319-0063 (515) 725-7217 heather.palmer@oca.iowa.gov Footnotes [fn:1] In the Show Cause Order discussed below, the Commission expressly “encourage[d] . . . state consumer advocates to submit comments explaining whether this information is sufficient and granular enough or to submit comments explaining precisely which additional information on transmission cost allocation may be needed to inform proper state-jurisdictional cost allocation.” Midcontinent Indep. Sys. Operator, Inc., 195 FERC ¶ 61,212 at P 70 (2026) (“Show Cause Order”). [fn:2] Midcontinent Indep. Sys. Operator, Large Load Working Group, Large Load Interconnection Reliability Requirements (LLWG) at 8 (Aug. 12, 2026), https://www.misoenergy.org/events/2026/large-load-working-group-llwg---august-12-2026/ (last visited on Sept. 16, 2026). footer1 (Word template) 2