How NIPSCO feels leaned on.
Bruce W. Radford is publisher of Public Utilities Fortnightly. Contact him at radford@pur.com(link sends e-mail).
Northern Indiana Public Service, the MISO member sandwiched between PJM’s Ohio territory and its noncontiguous Chicago outpost, feels particularly aggrieved by the failure of the MISO-PJM Joint Operating Agreement, approved by FERC in 2004, to facilitate cross-border grid projects to relieve constraints along the ragged and interlaced seam that separates the two regions.
In a complaint filed at FERC just last month, NIPSCO asked for relief from the omnipresent PJM power transfers across the gap between Ohio (in MISO) and Chicago (in PJM). These power flows lean on NIPSCO transmission lines, sometimes even forcing some of those lines to be opened, raising concerns over N-2 contingencies.
“That nothing has been built,” says NIPSCO, “is not due to lack of need.” (Complaint of No. Ind. Pub. Serv., FERC Dkt. EL13-88, filed Sept. 11, 2013.)