MISO is seeking ways to modify its annual transmission plan and make it easier for stakeholders to suggest alternatives to transmission owners’ project proposals.
During a Planning Subcommittee meeting Feb. 9, the RTO tested a draft plan that would increase the amount of time stakeholders have to assess projects and draw up alternatives during the annual Transmission Expansion Plan (MTEP).
Expansion Planning Senior Manager Thompson Adu said stakeholders have complained that MISO only allows a few weeks in the MTEP planning cycle to “review models, evaluate mitigations and propose alternatives” to submitted projects.
The RTO currently accepts both MTEP project proposals and alternatives on Sept. 15. It is proposing to move the alternative projects’ deadline to May 31 of the following year, giving stakeholders an extra eight and a half months to develop alternative solutions. Staff would then analyze the alternative proposals June through September.
However, multiple stakeholders said that unless MISO standardizes the project information that TOs release, the expanded timeline won’t help. They said TOs don’t post the same datasets on projects, making it difficult to assess proposals and draw up alternatives.
“What we’re looking at here is not just a timeline issue, but also an information issue,” Alliant Energy’s Mitch Myhre said.
Adu said the proposal was only a “conversation starter” and that MISO is accepting more ideas to encourage more meaningful transmission alternatives.
The grid operator has reported it’s overseeing 1,255 active MTEP projects totaling $13.6 billion. Of those, 118 projects, worth $2.3 billion, are under construction. Eleven projects were withdrawn during 2020’s final quarter.
Since the first MTEP package in 2003, approximately $26.5 billion worth of approved transmission projects have gone into service, according to MISO.
Meanwhile, the RTO has developed its cost-estimation guide for 2021 MTEP economic projects. Substation engineer Alex Monn said the fourth iteration of the annual guide includes both upfront project costs and costs over time. He said that as new technologies are sized up as project alternatives, MISO should provide maintenance cost predictions. He said energy storage projects generally have larger costs over the first 20 years versus traditional wires projects.
MISO will collect stakeholder opinions on its cost-estimation guide through April.
