As of June 13, 2025, state utility regulators and ratepayer advocates are urging the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) to reject a Midcontinent Independent System Operator (MISO) petition that requests the agency to declare that “unsolicited” long-range transmission planning, monitoring, and evaluation is outside the scope of its market monitor’s duties. [1] Market monitors from the PJM Interconnection, MISO, and ISO New England said that transmission planning and market oversight are linked. [2] Potomac Economics (PE), which serves as the independent market monitor for MISO, argued that there are not many coherent arguments indicating that transmission planning does not affect MISO’s markets and services. [3] Yet, MISO transmission owners like Ameren, Duke Energy, and Entergy support minimizing PE’s role in transmission planning, asserting that unsolicited monitoring and evaluation of MISO’s transmission planning activities are beyond the scope of PE’s tariff-assigned responsibilities. They argue that PE should not be entitled to compensation funded by MISO customers. The petition originated from PE’s criticism of MISO’s needs and cost-benefit analysis that underlie its roughly $22 billion Tranche 2.1 transmission portfolio that was approved in December. MISO asked FERC to declare that unsolicited transmission planning and monitoring are outside the scope of PE’s engagement under MISO’s tariff and that the grid operator does not have to pay for the activities.
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