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FERC Approves Five More ComEd and Data Center TSA Agreements
On March 10th, the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) approved five more separate Transmission Security Agreements (TSAs) between Commonwealth Edison (ComEd) and data center developers.
In each of its rulings FERC said that the TSA’s include a defined ramp, a customer facility readiness obligation, credit obligations, committed revenue contributions, shortfall payments if the data centers’ usage and resulting transmission revenues miss commitments and a termination-fee schedule, among other measures.
Swett, Chairman, and LaCerte, Commissioner, concurring in the respective TSA’s state:
“[A]s we head down the road where it appears that agreements similar to those approved today may become more common, we also would like to clarify that the Commission’s existing transmission policy “endorses transmission pricing flexibility,” not a linear analysis. In the 1994 Transmission Pricing Policy Statement, the Commission explained that “[i]n order to provide new or expanded transmission service, a utility may be required to add expensive transmission assets, which can result in an increase in rolled-in embedded cost rates.” To protect existing customers, the Commission allows a transmission provider to charge a rate for transmission service that is the “higher of” either the rolled-in embedded cost of the system (as expanded), or the incremental cost9 of the system expansion, but not the sum of the two. The Commission re-affirmed this policy in Order Nos. 888 and 890.11
FERC last month approved similar agreements between Chicago-based ComEd and Aligned Data Centers, Monarch Rock Air and Red Energy Partners.
The approved TSA agreements between ComEd and respective data centers include:
