By Amanda Durish Cook

The task team examining changes to how MISO selects its Board of Directors is closing in on a set of recommendations that could alter eligibility requirements for future members.

Among the possible suggestions? Reserving a board seat for candidates who have experience representing the interests of utility customers.

The Board Qualification Task Team (BQTT) could offer up that and more later this month at MISO Board Week in St. Paul, Minn.

Jennifer Easler, an attorney with the Iowa Office of Consumer Advocate, said the move would ensure customer views are better represented on the board.

“I believe the current structure is more heavily dominated by industry perspectives,” Easler said during a Sept. 3 BQTT conference call. “I believe the price of particular initiatives is something good to keep in the forefront.”

Easler said she envisioned the position being filled by anyone with experience advocating for consumer interests, whether at a public or non-governmental organization. She said it would be helpful for RTOs to be more cost-conscious.

But some members of the task team cautioned a consumer expertise requirement might be too broad and is probably already represented among current board members. Others said they worried further earmarking of board seats for specific backgrounds could lead to a shallower pool of candidates.

MISO’s Transmission Owners’ Agreement dictates that the nine-member board contain six members with experience in corporate leadership at the senior management or board level or in the areas of finance, accounting, engineering or utility laws and regulation. The three remaining director seats are divided among those with transmission system operations, transmission planning and commercial markets and trading experience.

When she served on the Nominating Committee last year, Madison Gas and Electric’s Megan Wisersky said she was explicitly told to look for candidates with a regulatory background, even though regulatory experience was not a prerequisite. The committee eventually recommended then-sitting Minnesota Public Utilities Commission Chair Nancy Lange. (See MISO Elects Lange to Board; Keeps 2 Incumbents.)

“Where does this come from?” she asked, calling for MISO and its Advisory Committee to be more transparent about which skills and background they’re seeking each year in new directors. She asked MISO to share how it decides what qualifications will help better position the RTO to navigate grid change.

MISO earlier this year tasked the BQTT with examining possible Nominating Committee changes, either expanding or eliminating the RTO’s yearlong “cooling-off” period imposed on board candidates, and potentially detailing more director qualifications.

Exelon’s David Bloom said the team will likely provide a draft of its recommendations at the Sept. 18 Advisory Committee meeting during MISO Board Week. The AC is expected to vote in December on whether to put the recommendations before the board’s Corporate Governance and Strategic Planning Committee.

MISO sectors have generally agreed to recommend increasing the number of stakeholder representatives on the Nominating Committee that selects board candidates. (See MISO Sectors OK Expanding Nominating Committee.) The BQTT appears ready to suggest boosting the number of stakeholder seats from the current two to three or four and rotating the sectors from which participants are drawn. Three committee seats are reserved for sitting board members.

The BQTT also looks set to recommend applying MISO’s current yearlong cooling-off period before board eligibility to state and federal regulators as well as those coming out of the industry.

“State commissioners and staff are market participants in every sense of the word but the legal definition. Their decisions affect what happens in MISO,” Wisersky said.

Three MISO directors’ terms will conclude at the end of this year. Additionally, the board is involved in a special process to decide on a candidate to replace former board member Thomas Rainwater. (See “Board Moving on Rainwater Replacement,” MISO Board of Director Briefs: June 20, 2019.)

BQTT leaders will likely ask MISO to extend the life of the group by at least a month in order to consider feedback from AC members through October. Bloom said while he hoped the team could wrap up next month, he wouldn’t rule out an extension through the end of the year.