As part of permitting for the project, Grain Belt Express last year received a certificate "of public convenience and necessity" from the Illinois Commerce Commission for the 207 miles of line that would cross the state. However, a group called Concerned Citizens & Property Owners, along with the Illinois Farm Bureau and other groups filed a challenge to that approval.

To grant the certificate, Illinois law requires the project owner be “capable of financing the proposed construction without significant adverse financial consequences for the utility or its customers.” 

The Fifth District appeals court judges found that Grain Belt Express LLC, acting as the developer, did not meet that requirement when it went before the commission. The company said it plans to finance the project in part through debt backed by the U.S. Dept. of Energy or commercial banks, but had not secured that funding at the time of the commission approval. Instead, the commission included a condition that the company could not install equipment on easement property until it had all the needed funding in place, which it said satisfied the requirement. 

“Ultimately, there was not substantial evidence put forth to support the commission’s finding that [Grain Belt Express] is capable of financing the project,” the judges wrote. “The evidence put forward demonstrated that [it] lacked the funding at the time of the hearing, had no customers, contracts, government or bank commitments, and as a result failed to meet the [state law] criteria with anything more than speculation.”

Dia Kuykendall, director of public affairs at Invenergy Transmission, said in a statement that the company intends to “immediately appeal the decision to the Illinois Supreme Court.”

“This ruling completely misinterprets law and threatens billions in energy cost savings for Grain Belt Express consumers,” Kuykendall said. “The erroneous ruling has far-reaching implications beyond Grain Belt Express and contradicts Illinois' efforts to secure a reliable and affordable clean energy future.”

The Energy Dept. included the Grain Belt Express corridor on a list of high priority transmission projects for federal financing earlier this year. 

Invenergy has planned for Grain Belt Express to be a two-phase project. Phase 1 would cover about 530 miles in Kansas and Missouri, so it is not directly impacted by the court ruling. Grain Belt Express has said it aims to start construction in 2025 to begin operations in 2029, and Kuykendall said that work is continuing as planned.

Earlier this year, Grain Belt Express issued an open solicitation for up to 800 MW of Phase 1’s planned 2,500-MW capacity.

FERC Challenges

In other transmission related legal cases, the U.S. Judicial Panel on Multidistrict Litigation said on Aug. 8 that it selected the U.S. Court of Appeals in Richmond, Va., to hear 11 consolidated lawsuits against the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission’s Order 1920—a monumental mandate issued in May that requires transmission grid operators to conduct long-term planning to anticipate energy needs up to 20 years into the future. 

FERC approved the order by a 2-1 vote.

The controversial order is facing challenges from some Republican state officials who say it is overreaching and costly, and also from environmental groups who say the order is not robust enough to meet goals for needed U.S. transmission, as well from as some power sector groups and developers, including Invenergy.