CARMEL, Ind. — MISO is asking stakeholders to put pen to paper by spring to describe how the RTO should measure grid resilience.

Stakeholders will participate in a broad discussion of what constitutes resilience during MISO Board of Directors Week in late March. And the RTO has asked each stakeholder sector to prepare its own whitepaper on the topic.

During a Jan. 23 Informational Forum, MISO CEO John Bear celebrated FERC’s recent decision to reject Energy Secretary Rick Perry’s proposed rulemaking to financially support nuclear and coal-fired generators, instead requiring RTOs to answer questions about how they assess resilience. (See DOE NOPR Rejected, ‘Resilience’ Debate Turns to RTOs, States.) Bear said MISO is committed to promoting reliability and resilience throughout its footprint, emphasizing that no near-term reliability issues exist, attributable in part to the RTO’s partnership with state regulators.

DOE’s original rulemaking timeline didn’t allow for “reasoned decision-making and thoughtful review,” Bear added.

“A one-size fits-all wasn’t feasible in MISO given our diverse footprint,” he said, promising to work with stakeholders in drafting a response to the order. MISO Director of Planning Jeff Webb last week said the RTO is still holding internal meetings to formulate its response.

MISO Website Officially Migrates

MISO’s officially launched its redesigned website on Jan. 16, and market reports and real-time data feeds are up and running, said Kacey George, the RTO’s digital strategy adviser.

“We had 12 million hits on the first day,” George said.

MISO expects to upload planning and training materials as well as leadership and governance pages by the end of the month, she said. Staff must also address a few bugs, namely involving some member pages related to the interconnection queue.

The old website will be preserved at old.misoenergy.org into spring as a contingency, should something go wrong with the new site. (See Winter Launch for MISO Website, Market System Project.)

December Ops

Lower natural gas prices and relatively light congestion translated into lower year-over-year prices for MISO in December despite slightly higher load.

Shawn McFarlane, MISO executive director of strategy, said average temperatures in the RTO’s footprint last month ranged from 1 to 6 degrees Fahrenheit colder than the 30-year average, driving the increase in load. But prices averaged $27.26/MWh, 11% lower than the same period a year earlier.

“We were about $3/MWh lower than what we saw last year,” McFarlane said.

He credited the lower prices to a 25-cents/MMBtu drop in gas prices and lower congestion compared with the previous December. Average load was up 0.8 GW to 77.7 GW, and load peaked at 98.8 GW on Dec. 27, a 5.8% increase over the average monthly high.

“Multiple rounds of arctic air swept through the footprint” during the month, McFarlane said, making load forecasting challenging and leading to two days with a poor unit commitment score in MISO’s monthly self-assessment.

“Holiday loads … are always kind of tricky to figure out,” he said.

McFarlane also said MISO had to manage high market-to-market congestion with SPP in December because of high wind output and transmission outages in SPP.

MISO Shuffles Leadership

MISO has made several leadership changes in the new year, Bear said.

Todd Ramey will now exclusively head MISO’s market platform replacement effort, leaving his role of vice president of system operations to become vice president of system enhancements, a new position. MISO is poised to spend $130 million by 2024 to replace its aging market platform with a more adaptable modular system.

Former Executive Vice President of Operations and Corporate Services Richard Doying will step away from the operational side of MISO to focus exclusively on designing a market for the future.

“Everything is on the table here,” Bear said of Doying’s new role. “Put some simulations in place and stress it. What concerns me is not so much the next five years, but the five years after that … and the queue shows that. If we don’t get ahead of the curve, we’ll be chasing it.”

Bear said the markets were designed in 2005 and not equipped for today’s realities of more exact forecasting, high wind penetration and copious amounts of data.

“Quite frankly, it’s hard to keep the system safe. It wasn’t designed for the environment we live in today,” Bear said.

Finally, MISO South Vice President Todd Hillman will transition to become head of external affairs.

Additionally, in December, MISO revealed a plan of executive succession that promoted Clair Moeller from vice president to president of MISO, and will have Moeller stepping into the role of CEO should something unforeseen happen to Bear. (See MISO Board Promotes Moeller, OKs 2018 Budget.)

Entergy New Orleans CEO Talks Big Easy Challenges

MISO welcomed Entergy New Orleans CEO Charles Rice during the meeting for a brief conversation of the challenges and considerations of powering the Big Easy.

“It’s a pretty unique place in terms of the population density and the geography. We’re surrounded by water on three sides. For us to import power into the City of New Orleans is very challenging and very difficult,” Rice said.

The city has little right-of-way space for additional transmission lines, Rice added.

The CEO highlighted the need for the planned, $210 million, 128-MW natural gas-fired plant within city limits at the site of Entergy’s retired Michoud plant. He has previously warned that the city has only 1 MW of generation within its borders and needs a more reliable, onsite generation source. The proposed plant currently awaits New Orleans City Council approval; city advisers rejected an earlier proposal from the utility for a larger, more expensive plant.

Hillman asked how Entergy New Orleans plans to prepare for the increased likelihood of another hurricane.

“We never stop preparing. We prepare year-round for hurricanes,” Rice said. “And after … we take a look at what went right, what went wrong.”

Entergy is still in the process of replacing natural gas pipelines damaged by Hurricane Katrina in 2005. “Right now, we’re probably focused on the largest gas infrastructure project in the country,” Rice said.

Rice said New Orleans’ demographics make providing utility service a delicate balance: “37% of my customers live at or below the poverty level, so I’m always thinking of that,” Rice said. “When we make decisions, we have to make sure it’s something our customers can afford.”

He said New Orleans is making strides in its goal of having up to 100 MW of rooftop solar located within the city and will pursue other new technologies, such as building microgrids at hospitals in the coming years.

“There’s going to come a time when customers are going to want to have 100% control of their energy,” Rice said. “If customers want a microgrid, we have to give them a microgrid. If they want rooftop solar, we’re going to have to figure out how to make that work.”

MISO traditionally holds its springtime quarterly board meeting within the city’s French Quarter; this year’s meetings occur March 27-29.

— Amanda Durish Cook