A federal judge has blocked implementation of a 2023 law granting utilities in Indiana the right of first refusal to build transmission projects in their service areas.
Chief Judge Tanya Walton Pratt of the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Indiana granted a motion Friday sought by competitive transmission developer LS Power. The preliminary injunction prohibits Indiana utility regulators from enforcing a provision in House Enrolled Act 1420 that gives incumbent utilities the automatic right to build regional transmission lines.
The ruling is the latest in a string of legal wins for competitive transmission developers such as LS Power and NextEra Energy, which want the opportunity to bid on billions of dollars of new transmission — a right granted by the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission’s Order 1000. The landmark 2011 order eliminated the federal right of first refusal (ROFR) on regional transmission projects, opening them up to competition.
The Indiana injunction comes just days before the board of the region’s grid operator, the Midcontinent Independent System Operator (MISO), votes to greenlight billions of dollars of new regional transmission projects, including lines in Indiana. A MISO executive said Tuesday that the grid operator expects about $7 billion worth of those projects to be open to competitive bidding.
