By Amanda Durish Cook
Fresh off the approval of their first interregional transmission project, MISO and PJM are now contemplating a new study this year and asking stakeholders what direction it might take.
Staff from both RTOs laid out the possible options in a conference call of the MISO-PJM Interregional Planning Stakeholder Advisory Committee (IPSAC) on Friday.
PJM’s Alex Worcester said the study could take the shape of a targeted market efficiency project (TMEP) study, a special targeted ad hoc study or a two-year coordinated system plan, the last of which could culminate in the RTOs’ second-ever large interregional market efficiency project (IMEP).
Worcester asked stakeholders to submit ideas on the options by Feb. 26.
“What we’re looking for here is specific study suggestions,” Worcester said. He asked that stakeholders identify specific constraints or flowgates that could use analysis. “Saying there’s lot of congestion to be studied doesn’t really provide us a lot of direction.”
In December, the RTOs finished a data exchange on regional issues, newly approved projects near the seam and the latest historical market-to-market congestion information. They reviewed each other’s information over January.
The RTOs will hold another IPSAC meeting March 27 to explore the need for a new study. By mid-May, the Joint Regional Planning Committee — composed of planning staff from both RTOs — will render the final verdict.
During the call, a few stakeholders said they would be interested in the RTOs working on another TMEP. The two decided against conducting a third TMEP study process in 2019 after determining that only one year of additional historical data would be available coming on the heels of the 2018 study.
A TMEP must cost less than $20 million, completely cover its installed capital cost within four years of service and be in service by the third summer peak from its approval. The process has a shorter outlook than the RTOs’ IMEP process, which evaluates projects over a 15-year timeline.
Similarly, MISO and SPP will evaluate the need for a 2020 interregional study at their IPSAC meeting March 10.
Meanwhile, MISO is waiting on FERC approval to have a cost allocation mechanism in place before its board can finalize approval for it and PJM’s first IMEP, identified in the RTOs’ 2019 transmission plans. The $21.6 million reconstruction of the 138-kV Michigan City-Trail Creek-Bosserman line in northwestern Indiana is wholly located inside PJM, but 11% of its costs will be allocated to MISO. (See MISO, PJM Poised for 1st Major Interregional Project.)
The project needs MISO to implement cost allocation rules before it can proceed. MISO last week filed a plan with FERC to allocate interregional economic project costs to benefiting transmission pricing zones.
