WISCONSIN – After their lobbyists could not convince the state legislature to enrich their CEO and shareholders with a state law to override federal competitive bidding requirements, a band of electricity utilities throughout the Midwest filed a complaint recently at the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) in Washington, DC to achieve the same outcome that would lead to rising electric costs for Wisconsin homeowners, farmers and businesses.
The complaint, filed in April by incumbent utilities against the grid operators, Midcontinent Independent System Operator (MISO) and Southwest Power Pool (SPP), seeks a moratorium that would prohibit utilities from competing with one another to build transmission projects, increasing ratepayer electricity prices in 18 states. Instead of MISO and SPP utilizing its existing cost-reducing competitive processes, the utilities are asking FERC to grant them a monopoly for billions of dollars of future transmission needed for data center load growth.
“The complaint is tone deaf to the electricity affordability crisis facing Americans. Suspending competition in MISO and SPP would expose consumers in these regions to billions in unchecked cost escalation for years, guaranteeing higher utility bills,” said Paul Cicio, Chair of the Electricity Transmission Competition Coalition (ETCC). “MISO and SPP competitive transmission projects have been shown to have a better track record of adhering to cost containment and completion schedules than non-competitive projects. More monopolies for energy would move us backward at precisely the wrong time.”
The FERC complaint is inconsistent with President Trump’s Ratepayer Protection Pledge[1], a pledge that consumers do not pay higher rates due to data center expansion and his Executive Order “Reducing Anti-Competitive Regulatory Barriers,”[2] ETCC will urge the US Department of Justice to review the complaint.
The MISO and SPP territories span the states of Arkansas, Iowa, Illinois, Indiana, Kentucky, Kansas, Louisiana, Michigan, Minnesota, Montana, Nebraska, New Mexico, Oklahoma, South Dakota, Texas, Wisconsin and Wyoming. Ratepayers in these states would be negatively impacted by a change in bidding process for transmission projects. Without competition, a monopoly incumbent utility has no incentive to reduce costs because the more they spend the more their profits increase from a guaranteed rate of return.
“Many of these state legislatures have already rejected utility lobbyists’ legislative attempts to end competition, and stood with ratepayers by voting against anti-competitive policies,” said Cicio. “This is a power grab of billions designed to protect corporate profits at the expense of every ratepayer who pays an electric bill. We encourage ratepayers in these states to reach out to their Congressional leaders, and ask them to tell FERC to say ‘no’ to the utilities’ attempt to end competition.”
The electric utilities that filed the complaint in an attempt to end competition include International Transmission Co, Michigan Electric Transmission Co, ITC Midwest, ITC Great Plains, Ameren Services, American Transmission Co, Cleco Power LLC, Entergy, Evergy Inc, Oklahoma Gas & Electric, Empire District Electric Company, and Xcel Energy. All have lost battles in their home states.
Transmission competition in MISO and SPP has historically enhanced cost, schedule discipline and accountability, while non-competitive projects have not. For example, six near-term SPP competitive projects reduced costs on average by 21 percent and eight MISO projects 38 percent.[3] Despite this, most projects were not competitively bid. Halting competition, even temporarily, would deprive ratepayers of the cost and schedule protections built into the competitive selection process, without providing any offsetting or meaningful benefits.
The complaint rests on the false premise that competition delays transmission development – a premise unsupported by the record. In fact, recent SPP competitive projects placed in service in 2025 (Minco and Wolf Creek) show a track record of meeting the needed and/or expected in-service date, with a third (Crossroads-Hobbs-Roadrunner) on schedule for delivery next month. History also shows non-competitive projects in MISO and SPP are not built more quickly. Thus, contrary to the complaint, winning the AI race requires implementing competition and enforcing Order 1000.
“When there is transmission competition, costs go down. When utilities are handed a monopoly on billions in transmission projects, they have no incentive to control costs, which are passed on to American consumers, including families, small businesses, and American industry. Fair competition, not monopolies and preferential treatment, is not just the right way to build out America’s electric grid, it’s the American way.”
The recent filing at FERC comes at a time when Americans are already grappling with high energy costs. To learn more about ETCC and the importance of preserving competition, visit https://electricitytransmissioncompetitioncoalition.org/.
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