On July 15, 2010, the Midwest Independent Transmission System Operator and a number of its transmission-owning members filed a cost allocation proposal with the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission that is intended to spur investment in new transmission infrastructure and facilitate the development and interconnection of new generation resources, like wind and other renewables, in the MISO region. If approved by FERC, the proposal will allocate the costs of new transmission from generators to the consumers who buy the energy produced by the generators and transmitted over the new facilities.

The proposal creates two new categories of regional transmission facilities: Multi Value Projects (MVPs) and Shared Network Upgrades (SNUs). The costs of MVPs, including associated network upgrades, would be allocated to all load within MISO as well as to exports to users outside of MISO. The costs of SNUs, which are transmission facilities that will be relied upon by multiple interconnecting generators, will be allocated among those generators. The proposal would retain the current cost allocation for Network Upgrades needed for interconnecting generators that do not qualify as MVPs or SNUs.

Multi Value Projects
MVPs would be a new class of regional transmission expansion projects. In general, MVPs are Network Upgrades that meet at least one of three criteria:

1. Transmission projects developed through the transmission expansion process to enable the reliable delivery of energy in support of a documented public policy mandate (e.g., state renewable portfolio standard).
2. Transmission projects that provide multiple types of economic value across multiple pricing zones.
3. Transmission projects that address at least one transmission issue that is driven by a compliance requirement with a NERC or regional entity standard and provides economic value to multiple pricing zones.

In addition, to qualify as an MVP (1) the capital cost of the project must exceed the lesser of $20 million or 5% of the net transmission plant of the constructing transmission owner; and (2) the development must include construction or improvement of at least one facility that operates above 100 kV. The annual revenue requirements attributable to MVPs will be recovered through an MVP usage rate charged to all energy withdrawn from the MISO system.

The proposal anticipates that many large-scale transmission upgrades, which under the current rules would be categorized as Generator Interconnection Project Network Upgrades, would be categorized as MVPs and their costs allocated to load and exports. An initial group of MVP "starter projects" includes transmission lines in every region of the MISO footprint and represents about $4.6 billion in investment over the next ten years.

Shared Network Upgrades
SNUs are Network Upgrades relied on by multiple interconnecting generators. Those generators will share the upgrade costs accordingly. Cost responsibility for SNUs originally funded by the first-mover interconnection customer would also be assigned to subsequent interconnection customers that also use and benefit from those upgrades. Network Upgrades eligible for SNU designation are those funded by earlier Generator Interconnection Project(s) that have (1) an interconnection agreement effective date after July 15, 2010; (2) an actual in-service date that is less than five years from the date of the publication of a System Impact Study identifying them as being eligible for contribution; and (3) been determined by MISO to benefit a later-interconnected Generator Interconnection Project(s). Most SNUs are likely to be small and serve a local purpose.