“MISO does not issue refunds,” Jay Hermacinski of MISO corporate communications told Fierce Energy, pushing back on Ameren’s characterization of the discussions. “This is about ensuring that our customers pay a fair price for electric supply today while putting in place safeguards to make sure that a spike in capacity costs does not occur again,” said Ameren’s Mark. Ameren Illinois also sought a review of the market rules that will be applied in future capacity auctions. In comments the company filed in response to the complaints already before FERC, Ameren Illinois shared the concerns raised by those parties and asked FERC to review and ensure that the results of the auction had been above-board. In light of these discussions, Mark said that MISO had agreed to refund about $84 million to load serving entities in Zone 4 (central and southern Illinois), which will be passed on by the utility to ratepayers to help mitigate the increased cost of capacity. “Since the auction results were announced, we have been in discussions with MISO officials to explore any available avenue to provide our customers with relief from this unexpected surge in capacity prices,” said Ameren Illinois President Richard Mark. Capacity charges are included in the overall cost of energy supply, which Ameren Illinois passes on to customers without mark-up. Under MISO’s recent federally approved capacity auction, Ameren protested, “the capacity price for Zone 4, which includes Ameren Illinois customers, was more than 40 times the price charged in other MISO zones.”Īs a result of the auction, Zones 1-3 and 5-7 cleared at $3.48/MW per day Zone 4 (much of Illinois) cleared at $150.00/MW-day and Zones 8-9 (MISO South), cleared at $3.29/MW-day, Fierce Energy reported. These parties assert that the Midcontinent Independent System Operator’s (MISO’s) capacity planning auction, held last April, resulted in “unjust and unreasonable capacity prices for utility customers in central and southern Illinois.”Īmeren Illinois is required to procure electric capacity at the auction price from MISO – the independent operator that manages the energy wholesale power market in the Midwest and ensures that adequate supply is available to meet customer demand. On June 30, the company filed intervening comments to the complaints made on April 28 by Illinois Attorney General Lisa Madigan, advocacy group Public Citizens, and the Southwestern Electric Cooperative, which serves about 17,000 ratepayers in the state. Ameren Illinois, which serves about three-quarters of that state’s market, has become the latest utility to ask the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) for answers about the recent spike in energy capacity prices.
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