MISO members have recommended that the RTO’s 2020 Transmission Expansion Plan (MTEP 20) proceed to final approval in December.
Without discussion, eight of MISO’s 10 sectors with voting rights approved MTEP 20, comprising 514 new projects costing $4.06 billion, during the Planning Advisory Committee teleconference Wednesday. The portfolio investment level is similar to MTEP 19’s.
The State Regulatory Authorities and Eligible End-User Customers sectors both abstained from voting.
MTEP 20 is now before the Board of Directors’ System Planning Committee for consideration and an October vote. The PAC’s recommendation vote came about a month early this year, as MISO wanted to give the board more time to review the plan. The board has approved about $36 billion in annual transmission buildout since 2003.
The RTO’s executive director of system planning, Aubrey Johnson, said earlier this year that “a preponderance” of projects is in the Central planning region. Most of those are baseline reliability projects: transmission upgrades necessary to meet NERC standards.
Coordinated Planning Effort Continues
Some stakeholders continue to be dissatisfied with MISO’s first suggestion to coordinate its interconnection upgrade studies and planning studies under MTEP.
The RTO and stakeholders have been working on coordination in the hopes of approving more multifunctional transmission projects. (See MISO Processing Heftiest Interconnection Queue Ever.)
Staff have offered to perform an economic evaluation of certain generator interconnection upgrades that show promise. That offer is only open to the network upgrades of generation projects that already have a signed generator interconnection agreement in place. (See MISO Unveils 1st Proposal to Consolidate Tx Planning.)
The grid operator this week also suggested that interconnection upgrades pass screening criteria before they can be evaluated as possible market efficiency projects. The criteria include a $50,000 to $100,000/MW cost minimum on network upgrades and exclude line rebuilds and interconnection substation work.
Some stakeholders say the proposal is not enough to prevent generation projects from dropping out of the interconnection queue when they balk at high upgrade costs. Many stakeholders said waiting for an economic evaluation after a GIA is signed wastes time.
“It’s challenging from a commitment timeline to wait until that moment,” EDF Renewables’ Arash Ghodsian said.
The Sustainable FERC Project’s Lauren Azar asked that MISO keep a reasonable per-megawatt cost threshold so that generation developers aren’t dissuaded from GIAs by high costs. She also reminded stakeholders that an interconnection upgrade being cleared for MISO economic analysis isn’t a guarantee that it will proceed to regional cost sharing.
Other stakeholders said MISO shouldn’t be so quick to exclude line rebuilds, because a project could only slightly overload the original line. That would leave a lot of headroom for other flows on rebuilt lines.
Clean Grid Alliance’s Natalie McIntire also urged the grid operator to think about network upgrades that may negate the need for future reliability projects.
MISO has framed its proposal as a first step in better linking transmission upgrades unearthed in the interconnection queue with annual transmission planning.
“The fact of the matter is that these processes have been in place for a number of years. We can’t change them overnight; there are too many moving parts and complications,” MISO’s Neil Shah said.
“I agree that these processes were designed when there were 5 to 6 GW in the queue. Now there is more than 100 GW,” Ghodsian said.
Shah also said MISO has to work out the board approval process of interconnection upgrades-turned-economic projects.
The Coalition of MISO Transmission Customers attorney Kevin Murray has said a consolidated transmission approach’s incorrect assumptions could lead to needless transmission.
“We have concerns about building transmission paths to nowhere,” Murray said during an Aug. 19 Advisory Committee meeting.
But the Union of Concerned Scientists’ Sam Gomberg said planning models have gotten better, continue to evolve and can usually pinpoint the most useful projects.
Several stakeholders have said that cost allocation under coordinated planning must be handled to appropriately charge cost-causers and beneficiaries.
Board OKs 1st Major Interregional Project
Directors last week approved MISO’s and PJM’s first major interregional transmission project, a year after it was first recommended by the RTOs.
The $22 million reconstruction of the 138-kV Michigan City-Trail Creek-Bosserman line in the northwestern corner of Indiana was identified last fall in the 2018/19 MISO-PJM coordinated system plan. (See MISO, PJM Poised for 1st Major Interregional Project.) The project is a tie line between Northern Indiana Public Service Co.’s service area in the MISO footprint and American Electric Power’s territory on PJM’s side. The project boasts a 3.12:1 benefit-to-cost ratio. MISO stands to pay just under 11% of project costs at $2.35 million.
MISO’s board approved the project during its Sept. 17 meeting.
Director Nancy Lange asked whether future interregional projects with PJM will be approved more quickly now that a cost allocation method is in place.
“These reforms certainly make it easier for projects. It should be a more expeditious process in the future,” said Jesse Moser, director of economic and policy planning.
PJM’s Board of Managers approved the project during its December 2019 meeting. MISO’s nine-month lag came because the grid operator does not have a cost-sharing plan in place for its interregional market efficiency projects. (See Another Rejection for MISO Cost Allocation Plan.)
