Efforts by the Alliance Companies and the Midwest Independent Transmission System Operator (MISO) to hammer out an agreement that would allow the Alliance Transmission Co. to fall under the broader MISO regional transmission organization (RTO) umbrella have hit a bump in the road, Alliance told FERC last week.

Alliance’s Feb. 19 filing at the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission responds to a Commission directive issued in December of last year. In a series of orders, FERC gave its blessing to MISO’s becoming an RTO, while rejecting the Alliance RTO, a for-profit transco. FERC directed Alliance to explore whether its business plan could be successfully accommodated underneath an RTO umbrella.

Alliance said that talks with MISO “have been extensive and have involved a full airing of issues and an exchange of technical information.” Alliance noted that National Grid is “actively participating” in the negotiations since it will serve as the independent managing member of Alliance Transmission.

Alliance said that at the conclusion of a meeting on Feb. 13, Alliance and National Grid were “cautiously optimistic” that an agreement would be reached with MISO to accommodate Alliance Transmission as a viable independent transmission business within the MISO RTO. But Alliance told FERC that MISO subsequently offered a “sudden reversal of position” related to an agreement in principle on allocation of functions.

Alliance and National Grid are now “concerned about whether an agreement can be reached” with MISO. Alliance said that the “dominant voices” within MISO’s stakeholder community and MISO’s “inability to exercise its independence from those voices” has so far proven to be an “intractable obstacle to achieving the reasonable and equitable arrangements” needed to accommodate Alliance Transmission.

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