By Amanda Durish Cook
MISO will shut down its regional planning office in Metairie, La., by the end of next year, RTO officials confirmed Wednesday.
The move will leave MISO with three physical locations: Carmel, Ind., Little Rock, Ark., and Eagan, Minn. MISO said it will not renew the lease at the Two Lakeway Center office building in the New Orleans metro area when it expires at the end of 2019. By then, the RTO hopes to complete relocation of employees and equipment.
MISO spokesman Mark Adrian Brown said every employee at the Metairie office has the option to relocate to one of the other three offices. He said RTO leadership first disclosed the closure to employees in spring to ensure they had enough time to make relocation plans.
MISO is assisting affected employees with the transition. “We are working with each individual to ensure they have the information and support they need during this process,” Brown said.
The RTO has maintained the Metairie location since 2012, the year before it officially integrated Entergy’s territories into its footprint.
The closure will save MISO money, but it’s not clear how much, as the RTO doesn’t disclose how much it spends on property. Brown said shuttering the space will help support the RTO’s “overall organizational health.”
“MISO carefully studied a number of factors in the decision-making process. MISO is a steward of our members’ resources, and we must always consider the most efficient solutions and opportunities that enhance the value we deliver,” Brown in an email to RTO Insider. He added that the move would bring employees together and allow them to collaborate in its remaining and more modern regional offices.
In a 2019 budget report to the Audit and Finance Committee of the Board of Directors, Finance Subcommittee Chair Mitchell Myhre of Alliant Energy said the closure will “provide financial benefits in 2019 and beyond.” In recommendations this year, the seven-member committee also said MISO should be open to decreasing its scope of operations to cut costs.
MISO’s 2019 budget has not yet gone before the larger stakeholder community. The Finance Subcommittee will present the 2019 budget to the Advisory Committee on Oct. 24. The RTO is recommending a $312.6 million total operating budget and $27.2 million capital expense budget. MISO’s base operating budget, at $269.6 million, represents a 2% increase from 2018. (See “MISO Spending Closely Tracks 2018 Limit; RTO Ups 2019 Budget,” MISO Board of Directors Briefs: Sept. 20, 2018.)
