By Amanda Durish Cook

MISO membership voting results confirmed three new Board of Directors members.

The new directors, announced at the RTO’s Oct. 25 Informational Forum, are former ERCOT CEO H.B. “Trip” Doggett, former Calvert Investments CEO Barbara Krumsiek and Todd Raba, who is leaving Twenty First Century Utilities and has served as CEO of both GridPoint and Berkshire Hathaway’s Johns Manville. The three were selected by MISO’s Nominating Committee in September from a pool of about 30 applicants. (See “MISO Membership Voting on 3 New Board Members,” MISO Board of Directors Briefs.) The trio begin three-year terms Jan. 1, after Board Chair Judy Walsh and directors Michael Evans and Paul Feldman reach MISO’s term limit.

Director Michael Curran welcomed the new members in a press release. “We are pleased to have their experience on the board to help ensure MISO remains nimble and on the forefront of the ever-evolving energy industry.”

MISO Deputy General Counsel Eric Stephens said 35% of the RTO’s members cast votes in the election, which was held from Sept. 16 to Oct. 24; a 25% participation rate was needed to reach a quorum. Stephens said MISO had the election independently certified to verify the results.

MISO CEO John Bear said the RTO’s entirely electronic voting platform, implemented a few years ago, ensured a smoother voting process.

MISO Incentive Plan up for Stakeholder Inspection

Meanwhile, MISO and its current board posted a first draft of its short-term incentive plan for stakeholder review through Nov. 21. The plan, revealed at the Oct. 25 Human Resources Committee of the Board of Directors, outlines the board’s discretionary bonus for the RTO’s staff based on nine weighted performance metrics.

Among the targets staff must meet to qualify for the incentive pay are:

• Keeping spending within 2.5% of the annual operating budget and 8% of the capital budget;
• At least 94% “market funding efficiency,” a measure of the alignment between financial transmission rights and the day-ahead and real-time energy markets that indicates whether transmission capacity was oversold or undersold in the forward markets;
• Information technology availability: no more than eight unplanned incidents exceeding one hour of service per year;
• 94% unit commitment efficiency, a measure of how effectively MISO commits generation in its forward and intra-day processes to meet demand and mitigate constraints; and
• Minimal FERC and NERC reliability violations.

“One of the reasons I think this has worked is because we’re pretty hard graders on ourselves,” Bear said.