FERC applies new transmission ROE policy to MISO, slashes rate to 9.88%

摘要

The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission on November 21 voted to adopt a draft order that lays out a new methodology for determining whether the return on equity for transmission owners is just and reasonable. FERC then applied that new methodology to the Midcontinent ISO's existing 12.38% ROE, cutting it to 9.88%. The order was issued in response to an April 2017 decision by the US Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit to remand the commission's Opinion 531. That opinion modified FERC's ROE approach in response to a series of complaints involving a group of ISO New England transmission owners that date all the way back to 2011. Opinion 531 adopted a two-step discounted cash flow, or DCF, analysis for calculating what is dubbed a "zone of reasonableness" for ROE based on a proxy group of similarly situated companies. The commission uses the same two-step DCF approach in determining ROEs for natural gas and oil pipelines. Based on the record in the New England proceedings, FERC ultimately found that the base ROE for electric transmission generally should be set halfway between the midpoint and the top of the zone of reasonableness.