By Amanda Durish Cook

In a MISO first, the RTO has integrated a solar farm into its day-ahead and real-time markets.

North Star, a $180 million, 100-MW solar farm outside of Minneapolis, joined MISO’s wholesale markets on Dec. 16. Xcel Energy will purchase power generated by the facility in a 25-year deal that helps the utility meet its 1.5% solar energy requirement in Minnesota.

The RTO said months of planning and testing went into the project to ensure a “smooth integration of solar power into MISO’s day-ahead and real-time markets.” MISO tapped forecasting firm Energy and Meteo Systems — the same firm already handling the RTO’s wind forecasting — to forecast day-ahead solar.

“This project furthers the integration of renewable resources into our markets,” said Todd Ramey, MISO vice president of system operations.

MISO said that while several large-scale solar farms have been built in the footprint in the past few years, North Star is the largest in the Midwest, with more than 440,000 solar panels on 1,000 acres of former corn and soybean fields.

“Solar power from North Star is a key element in Xcel Energy’s plan to deliver more than 60% carbon-free energy for our customers by 2030,” said Chris Clark, president of Xcel Energy-Minnesota, North Dakota and South Dakota.

MISO filed the generator interconnection agreement between North Star and Xcel on Nov. 9 (ER17-329).

The solar facility is not allowed to exceed 100 MW. The project entered MISO’s interconnection queue as a variable energy resource last September. MISO mandated about $2.2 million in network upgrades, including grading, two new 115-kV breakers and four 115-kV switches as a condition of the agreement. Xcel spent about $260,000 for interconnection facilities.

Xcel and project partners D.E. Shaw Renewable Investments and Community Energy Solar reported completing the project in mid-October after six months of construction.

MISO said this year that it has about 1,700 MW of solar generation at various stages of its interconnection queue.