MISO has narrowed candidates for the Board of Directors to six, Nominating Committee stakeholder member Matt Brown said.

Brown told the Advisory Committee that the nominating panel interviewed 10 candidates in mid-August and selected a primary and secondary choice for each of the three open seats. The RTO started with a list of about 30 candidates.

“We’re really trying to pick individuals with the most impressive backgrounds, and not the ones that fit a mold,” Brown said.

Under MISO rules, the board must be made up of individuals with varying expertise. For this search, the RTO requires a person with transmission operations expertise, one with transmission planning expertise and one with experience in finance, accounting, engineering and utility regulation. Brown said the committee is also looking for candidates who have experience in technology or cybersecurity.

“It’s been a very enlightening process, and I think the search firm did a great job in locating candidates, and we had a very successful interview process,” Brown said. From a stakeholder perspective, Commissioner Weber and I are very excited about the six candidates and their caliber,” Brown said. Indiana Utility Regulatory Commissioner Angela Weber occupies the other stakeholder seat on the Nominating Committee.

Directors Judy Walsh, Michael Evans and Paul Feldman will hit MISO’s term limit when their current terms expire Dec. 31. MISO enacted a limit of three consecutive three-year terms last year. The Nominating Committee can seek a waiver to allow a fourth term if it believes it is needed “to retain [the director’s] skills or expertise, to maintain geographic or other diversity of the board, or is otherwise in the best interests of” MISO.

The board will review the committee’s six choices and make a selection by mid-September. Members will vote on the candidates between Sept. 15 and the Oct. 24 Informational Forum, at which the results will be announced.

The terms begin in January and expire at the end of 2019.

Close to Fall, MISO Stakeholder Entities Still Setting 2016 Priorities

The Resource Adequacy Subcommittee is seeking the approval of just two priorities for the year.

The RASC’s proposed priorities for 2016 are to improve the Planning Resource Auction and enhance gas-electric coordination.

RASC Chair Gary Mathis said he received scant feedback on the priorities. Mathis said he thought the timing had something to do with it. “2016 is more than half over,” he pointed out.

AC Chair Audrey Penner said stakeholders will begin earlier on 2017 priorities, starting with a strategic planning session at the end of September. She added that the groups would work to streamline the new priorities planning process in its second year.

“This is our first kick at the can, and we’ll get better year after year,” Penner said.

Meanwhile, Planning Advisory Committee Chair Bob McKee submitted five priorities nearly identical to the AC’s own priorities approved in May. (See “Committee Endorses 5 Final Priorities,” MISO Advisory Committee Briefs.)

“There was not a lot of conversation, but no concerns have been raised,” McKee said of the AC’s priority-setting.

Penner said the PAC and RASC’s 2016 priorities would be up for AC approval at the September meeting.

— Amanda Durish Cook