By Amanda Durish Cook

ST. PAUL, Minn. — MISO stakeholders last week signaled that they’re not yet ready to embrace creating an 11th sector in the RTO’s Advisory Committee to accommodate hard-to-pin-down members.

But discussion on the matter will continue as MISO fields a growing number of membership applications from entities that don’t have goals that clearly align with any of the RTO’s 10 existing sectors — the “others” current housed within the increasingly crowded Environmental and Other Stakeholder Groups sector.

By the end of the AC meeting Wednesday, MISO’s Power Marketers and Brokers sector had offered to absorb the “others” into its fold for a yearlong trial period.

Committee Chair Audrey Penner said MISO could use the time as a period of “discovery” to determine the need for a new sector. “This will be an exploratory year, and I’m very interested in who will line up to join our dysfunctional group,” she joked.

The committee last month considered creating a miscellaneous, 11th sector in order to give its Environmental sector a more singular voice. The committee was weighing whether to spin off the “other” contingent from the sector in response to member requests that entities with miscellaneous interests be separated from those with an environmental focus. (See Advisory Committee Considers 11th MISO Sector.)

The move came with many possible AC voting implications, chief among them how to mete out the Environmental sector’s existing two votes. AC leaders proposed several options, including splitting them; allowing the Environmental sector to retain its votes without giving the new sector a vote; or upping the number of committee votes to allow the new sector to participate in voting.

But a poll released last month revealed a majority of sectors preferred no change at all.

Eligible End-User Customers sector representative DeWayne Todd said he wasn’t convinced about the need for a new sector. He cautioned that, because any undefined entity could join, establishing a unified opinion for AC voting matters could prove “cumbersome.”

“We didn’t see a compelling reason to make a change at this point. We created the [Competitive Transmission Developer] sector when there was a need,” Todd said. The Environmental/Other sector housed some competitive transmission developers briefly before the creation of the CTD sector in 2014. The Sustainable FERC Project’s John Moore recalled conversations within the sector during that time as being stifled.

The Independent Power Producers and Exempt Wholesale Generators sector’s Adam Sokolski said he would have appreciated more conversation on exactly what entities would join a catch-all sector.

As a rule, MISO does not reveal the names of companies that approach it for membership until public approval by the Board of Directors. All members must belong to one of the 10 sectors.

However, it’s no secret that multiple “miscellaneous” companies are clamoring for membership.

“We know that there are companies that are approaching MISO that don’t have a home. What that number is, we don’t know,” Penner said. She reminded the sectors that it’s incumbent upon the stakeholder community to be as inclusive as possible. She also said removing hurdles to membership can further FERC’s goal of RTO transparency.

“I’m going to recharacterize this as an opportunity, not a problem, because more around the table is a good thing as far as I’m concerned,” Penner said. “We need a home for entities to join MISO, but it’s clear the Environmental sector is not a good fit.”

The Environmental sector itself voted to drop the “Other Stakeholder Groups” descriptor, retain its two votes and take no action to create a new sector.

“We would hope there would be a way to give someone a voice without creating a new sector,” Clean Grid Alliance’s Beth Soholt said.

David Bloom of the Power Marketers sector offered to draw up a plan to for “others” to join his sector in time for the committee’s Oct. 23 meeting. He said the switch is dependent on existing members’ agreement.

Director Barbara Krumsiek predicted there will be many more “others” in MISO’s future as the RTO’s energy landscape “remains so fluid.”