NEW ORLEANS — MISO’s preliminary 2025 Transmission Expansion Plan (MTEP 25) is set to become another record-breaking collection, at 434 transmission projects at an estimated cost of $11 billion.
MISO said load growth is pushing investment again.
Introducing the early version of the plan to board members March 11, MISO’s Laura Rauch said for the third consecutive year, the RTO is managing record levels of MTEP investment.
The $11 billion MTEP 25 contains $754 million in generator interconnection projects, $2.07 billion in baseline reliability projects and a whopping $8.17 billion in projects termed as “other,” which include projects needed for load growth, projects needed to replace aging infrastructure and projects needed to meet transmission owners’ reliability criteria.
Rauch said load growth is the thrust behind 61% of other category projects this year. She also said load growth likewise is propelling expedited treatment of projects.
This MTEP cycle includes $4.2 billion in developers’ expedited projects, or those projects that are needed sooner than MISO’s routine MTEP approval in December. The expedited investment this year eclipses MTEP 24’s $896 million worth of expedited requests and MTEP 23’s $684 million.
“You can’t help but having an eye pop at the expedited projects this cycle,” MISO Director Barbara Krumsiek said.
Rauch acknowledged it’s becoming more difficult to conduct expedited reviews “when you have data centers the size of Baton Rouge.” She assured board members that MISO’s expedited review process for transmission projects does not cut corners. MISO studies expedited projects outside of its usual MTEP reliability studies to make sure the projects won’t be detrimental to the grid.
If the full MTEP 25 moves ahead, Entergy Louisiana alone would account for $3.1 billion of MTEP 25 through 14 projects. Two 500-kV projects would cost more than $1 billion apiece.
MTEP 25 will take a more definitive shape over the fall. MISO will submit the portfolio for board approval Dec. 11.
Concerns over MISO South Planning
Virginia Paschal, representing the Arkansas Advanced Energy Association, asked MISO to take a “more proactive” approach on transmission planning in MISO South at the meeting.
Paschal said MISO South risks unnecessary energy curtailments in the future without cohesive, multi-value transmission planning. She said the South’s perceived penchant for new gas plants is overblown and many in the region want more than the “piecemeal” transmission planning occurring today.
“We need transmission that maximizes economic, reliability and consumer benefits,” Paschal said. She pointed out that MISO has focused exclusively on its Midwest region in its long-range transmission planning.
At a March 12 Advisory Committee meeting, the Alliance for Affordable Energy’s Yvonne Cappel-Vickery said the number of expedited projects requested from MISO South is alarming, particularly because the projects have limited oversight. She said her Louisiana-based nonprofit joined MISO hoping for more oversight of her investor-owned utility, in an apparent reference to Entergy.
Cappel-Vickery asked for MISO assurances that the expedited projects won’t replace comprehensive transmission planning in the South region.
Senior Vice President Todd Hillman said MTEP having such a large share of expedited projects is a new phenomenon. He also said MISO seeks to provide the lowest-cost “delivered” energy, not simply the lowest-cost energy, and that transmission planning in addition to resource planning achieves lower costs.
