ORIGINATION: ComEd cancels half of first TSA cluster, PowerHouse plans to protest

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Exelon-owned utility subsidiary Commonwealth Edison (ComEd) has cancelled an additional three transmission security agreements (TSAs) associated with data centers destined for Illinois, according to recent documents filed with the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC).

The new agreement was introduced by Exelon at the beginning of last year in an effort to tackle the growing influx of large load requests received by its subsidiaries.

In order to secure a TSA, developers must provide significant upfront collateral to cover the costs associated with connecting new large loads to the grid.

PowerHouse Data Centers, responsible for one of the TSAs, has informed FERC of its intention to protest the decision, despite the effective cancellation date having already passed.

Second tranche of TSAs

The latest three TSA cancellations stem from ComEd’s first cluster of eight agreements that it signed with developers during the backend of last year.

With ComEd having cancelled the TSA it signed with Karis Critical during February, this now means that four of the eight original agreements have been scrapped by the utility.

The three separate and now cancelled TSAs were countersigned by:

Red Energy Partners, LLC (Edged), relating to a data center in DeKalb County.
Monarch Air, LLC (Monarch Energy), relating to a data center in Winnebago County.
PowerHouse Hillwood Holding, LLC (PowerHouse Data Centers), relating to a data center in Will County.

ComEd said that each TSA was being canceled due to the underlying retail service application having been withdrawn, and asked FERC to grant an effective cancellation date of July 22 for the Edged and Monarch agreements, with a later July 25 effective date for the PowerHouse one.

Protest from PowerHouse

On July 27, PowerHouse filed a motion to intervene with FERC stating that it had “no advance notice that ComEd intended to make this filing” and that it “plans to protest the cancellation.”

“Powerhouse does not seek to cancel the TSA … [and] requires to move the project for which it has expended millions of dollars forward,” said the developer.

As part of its cancellation filing, ComEd said that PowerHouse was in separate breach of the TSA “for its failure to provide the required credit support.”

NPM is tracking almost 100 data centers in Illinois.