By Amanda Durish Cook
CARMEL, Ind. — MISO is considering establishing a possible commercial trading hub in Mississippi and will conduct stress tests and sensitivity analyses into the fall to help support its decision.
The RTO will use 12 to 15 months of hourly price and varying load data to create hub parameters and analyze the 618 existing pricing nodes in Mississippi and nearby areas in order to test the viability of the new hub, according to Michael Robinson, principal adviser of market design.
MISO will draft a white paper for stakeholders if the study concludes the Mississippi trading hub is worthwhile, Robinson said. The RTO hopes to finalize the hub in early November and have it go live in early December.
“It looks like there’s enough here to consider,” MISO South Vice President Todd Hillman said of the upcoming study at a June 8 Market Subcommittee meeting.
The RTO has deliberated over the issue since Mississippi became its 10th local resource zone in 2015, Hillman explained. “As the South region has gotten more knowledge, what we found is that when companies look for new locations, part of the reason they might do that is the gas infrastructure, but they also do it to join RTO pricing,” he said.
Hillman also said the state is especially looking for commercial growth. “Mississippi, as you know, is the poorest state in the country, so they’re looking to use their infrastructure.”
MISO has experience in creating and managing new trading hubs. Robinson said the RTO established the FE hub in 2005, redefined the Cinergy hub in 2010 and handled the addition of the Texas, Arkansas and Louisiana hubs during the MISO South integration in 2013.
“We’ve been through this process before, and it’s been a good process,” NRG Energy’s Tia Elliott said. She cautioned that, not being familiar with MISO’s process for creating a new hub, MISO South stakeholders could appreciate periodic updates. Robinson agreed and said he would work with Hillman to keep stakeholders informed about the situation.
