By Amanda Durish Cook

CARMEL, Ind. — MISO revealed Thursday that it plans to increase its employee headcount and invest $30 million to update its Carmel, Ind., headquarters. The grid operator said it’s in need of an expansion because it has outgrown the 133,409-square-foot facility that has served as its headquarters for more than a decade.

Over the next four years, MISO said it could add more than 80 employees to its workforce. The RTO hopes to gradually open 84 new positions by 2020 in order to qualify for $1.6 million in conditional tax credits and up to $100,000 in training grants offered by the Indiana Economic Development Corp. Final approval on both the employee additions and building expansion rests with MISO’s Board of Directors.

MISO spokesperson Andy Shonert said MISO’s investment plans are based on projections that are subject to performance-based checks. He noted that “future investment and headcount decisions are approved by the Board of Directors during the annual budget process.”

“The investment numbers cited encompass a number of priorities that MISO has worked on with stakeholders, including reconfiguring our Carmel location to better support our workforce, meeting critical technology needs and lease payments for our office building,” Shonert said, adding, “MISO always seeks to ensure we are good stewards of our members’ resources.”

A large portion of the expansion investment will go toward updating MISO’s facilities and IT and computer networking systems.

If the employee goal is reached, the city of Carmel said it would consider additional incentives, although the “city rarely offers additional benefits,” according to the Indianapolis Business Journal.

MISO’s decision followed deliberations that began last fall on whether to expand or move into new headquarters.

“Indiana has been our home since we first started, and we are proud to continue that investment,” MISO CEO John Bear said in a press release issued by the Indiana Economic Development Corp. “Fulfilling our mission of ensuring reliable operation of the electric grid requires the best and the brightest. This commitment to our Carmel facility will ensure that we have the people and technology to continue that mission in a way that provides value to our region.”

Of MISO’s 940 employees nationwide, more than 700 work in Indiana.

“We congratulate MISO on its big news today and we celebrate the fact that they chose to expand here in Carmel,” said Carmel Mayor Jim Brainard. “MISO has been a part of Carmel’s corporate family of 100-plus headquarters since the late 1990s and we look forward to watching their continued growth.”

In the meantime, and as part of the improvements, MISO is undergoing an audio-visual overhaul at its Carmel location. MISO Conference Services Manager Mike Barber said the top priority is to “enhance the stakeholder experience” of meetings. Barber said MISO is installing state-of-the-art audio-visual equipment that will include allowing telecommuting stakeholders a presentation view of meetings.

The audio-visual improvements will extend to MISO’s Eagan, Minn., location as well. Barber said construction at the Eagan facilities will begin on March 28 and last until May, while improvements to the Carmel facility began in late January and will last until April 11. Until then, meetings will be conducted offsite via telephone or at MISO’s Little Rock and Metairie, La., locations.

During a Tuesday meeting of the Markets Committee of the Board of Directors, Wisconsin Public Service’s Chris Plante asked if stakeholders will be required to use different software to view presentations online after the upgrade. Barber said that was something he couldn’t answer until pilot testing the new equipment.

At the MISO Steering Committee on Jan. 27, MISO Stakeholder Relations Specialist Alison Lane said a new conference call operator is coming on board in March. With the change, there will be no limit to how many callers can call into MISO meetings; currently the number is capped at about 150 callers. “That is all being folded into our AV update, which is slowly underway,” Lane said.

Lane said Board of Directors meetings and Advisory Committee meetings will continue to be operator-assisted, while all other meetings will not require an operator, “unless an issue arises.”