MISO on Feb. 10 unveiled its $8.8 billion 2026 Transmission Expansion Plan (MTEP 26), once again made pricier by load growth.

The proposal contains nearly $3.1 billion directly to address load growth, with much of it originating in the Midwest.

At a MISO Central subregional planning meeting, planning engineer Scott Goodwin told stakeholders that projects to address large load interconnection; age and condition; and local reliability and needs make up the majority of the portfolio, about $5.9 billion. Of that, large loads account for nearly $3 billion in projects.

By comparison, baseline reliability projects — those deemed as necessary by the RTO to maintain system reliability — make up a nearly $1.8 billion share of the total spending.

Overall, $1.3 billion of the projects are classified as expedited.

The figures are certain to change before the plan is put before the MISO Board of Directors for approval in early December. The RTO holds three rounds of subregional planning meetings annually, in February, June and September.

For 2026, MISO Central includes about 7.6 GW of the 8.6 GW of load additions driving investment and most of the expedited transmission projects planned to accommodate them. (See MISO Fields 50 Expedited Tx Project Requests, Recommends Several.)

“Indiana and Missouri are hot spots for load growth,” Goodwin said.