Several utilities are preparing to challenge the developer of the proposed BECI transmission line’s application to become a Wisconsin utility.
Midcontinent Grid Solutions will need to be approved as a public utility by the Public Service Commission before it can apply for a permit to build a proposed extra-high voltage, 190-mile transmission line across western and southern Wisconsin.
In recent weeks, concerned landowners, local governments and a school district have sought to intervene in MGS’s application for utility status amid a broader backlash against the proposal for the towering 765-kV power line.
But several utilities have indicated they plan to challenge MGS’s application on the terms by which it seeks to become a utility.
MGS’s application argues the would-be utility’s corporate owners should be exempt from regulation that bars a transmission operator’s “holding company” from owning a significant stake in other, non-transmission public utilities.
It’s also arguing it should not be subject to terms under the Wisconsin Utilities Holding Company Act that limit how much a public utility holding company can invest in non-utility businesses.
MGS’s upstream ownership includes the Ohio-based American Electric Power Company – one of the nation’s largest electricity generators and owner of the nation’s largest transmission system – and BHE Transmission, a subsidiary of multinational conglomerate Berkshire Hathaway.
Existing utilities seeking to intervene in MGS’s application have argued the developer’s interpretation of state law would change how transmission companies are regulated and limit the PSC’s ability to regulate transmission companies in the future.
The Wisconsin Utilities Association, which represents investor-owned electric and gas utilities, argued in one filing that MGS “seeks regulation as a public utility and a transmission company, while at the same time asking the Commission to entirely forgo regulating it like one.”
The state’s largest transmission operator, American Transmission Company, as well as WPPI Energy, Dairyland Power Cooperative – which plans to build the extra-high voltage MariBell transmission line – and a coalition of municipal utilities have also raised concerns about how the transmission developer has interpreted state law around its corporate ownership.
MGS in a response filing to WUA and WPPI argued those utilities are seeking to “preserve the status quo, without identifying a legally protected interest in the status quo.”
The company in a statement said it “look(s) forward to participating in the Commission’s process, presenting the facts supporting our application, and demonstrating why MGS should be recognized as a utility in Wisconsin.”
MGS is also facing pushback from municipalities and county governments, which have raised concerns about how the route of the proposed BECI line will impact their land use and development plans. Several landowner coalitions have also voiced concerns about how the proposed line will impact property values and quality of life.
Sauk Prairie School District has also requested to intervene over concerns about the proposed route crossing school property, creating noise and visual disruption, as well as broader opposition to the short public input timeline for the project.
It’s unclear whether any of those groups will be accepted as intervenors, since the PSC docket addresses whether MGS can become a utility, not where the BECI line will be built.
Watchdog group the Citizens Utility Board of Wisconsin is also seeking to intervene in the PSC docket.
An administrative law judge will decide what groups can become intervenors.
