New England's states back Maine against the RTO adder
Victoria Shinder1 min readThe New England States Committee on Electricity, representing the region's governors, has backed Maine's complaint at FERC over the RTO participation adder - the return-on-equity bonus paid to transmission owners for belonging to a regional transmission organisation. Utility Dive reports it at https://www.utilitydive.com/news/new-england-maine-rto-adder-complaint-ferc/830999/.
The states' argument is that an incentive cannot induce behaviour that state law already mandates. Beyond granting Maine's complaint, NESCOE asks FERC to adopt its own proposal limiting the adder to three years, or to eliminate it.
Central Maine Power and MEPCO reject the complaint, describing it as an attempt to enforce an "unlawful state statute" that interferes with FERC's authority over interstate transmission rates. A trade group warned that commission decisions driven by policies set elsewhere raise implications beyond this case.
What it means
The adder is a payment for a choice, and the complaint says the choice no longer exists. An incentive to join an RTO makes sense while joining is voluntary; where a state requires it, the payment buys nothing. That argument is narrow, which is what makes it dangerous to the adder: it does not require FERC to decide the incentive is bad policy, only that it is not doing anything here.
The jurisdictional counter is the real fight. If a state can extinguish a federal incentive by legislating the underlying behaviour, states acquire indirect leverage over interstate transmission rates - which is why the objection is framed as authority rather than as money.
⚠️ This is a filing and the responses to it. FERC has not ruled, and the three-year limit referred to is the agency's own proposal rather than a decision.