By Amanda Durish Cook

BRANSON, Mo. — A proposal to detach the appointment of MISO’s Steering Committee leaders from the election of the RTO’s Advisory Committee has been put on hold until late July.

The RTO’s Stakeholder Governance Guide currently calls for the vice chair of the Advisory Committee to serve as chair of the Steering Committee and vice versa. (See “MISO May End Automatic Steering Committee Leadership Posts,” Organization of MISO States Board of Directors Briefs.)

“Today, the Advisory Committee elects the Advisory Committee chair and vice chair, and then by way of peculiarity, they do a flip-flop” to lead the Steering Committee, Entergy’s Matt Brown said during a June 21 Advisory Committee meeting.

Representing MISO’s Transmission Owners sector, Brown proposed a sector email ballot to change the practice. The motion asks that “nominations be solicited annually for the Steering Committee chair and vice chair positions” and that the posts be open to any interested stakeholders. Elections would be decided by the Advisory Committee via sector vote.

Still, a majority of stakeholders in attendance voted to table the motion until the committee’s next conference call on July 26.

Brown said the current Advisory Committee chair and vice chair ― Manitoba Hydro’s Audrey Penner and NRG Energy’s Tia Elliott ― should be able to fulfill their current Steering Committee terms until the end of the year to avoid a leadership shake-up. The motion asks for elections to begin in 2018.

“It’s not the most important issue facing MISO now,” Brown admitted. “However, it’s important to the MISO Transmission Owners.”

Brown said sectors should vote to end the “unusual” practice of automatic leadership and move to “a more conscious choice.”

“This has absolutely nothing to do with the people that currently hold these roles,” Brown said. He recommended the vote to help the Steering Committee attain a level of independence from the Advisory Committee that is “impossible to achieve today.”

Elliott asked if the proposal was aimed at “fixing” something specific that the Steering Committee failed to address.

“This is not anything specific,” Brown replied. “This is not about any actions or decisions of the Steering Committee or any actions or decisions of its current leadership.”

Northern Indiana Public Service Co.’s Paul Kelley said the move was simply a response to a request by MISO Director Thomas Rainwater at the last Advisory Committee meeting to identify attainable stakeholder process improvements.

MISO Stakeholder Relations staffer Alison Lane said the Steering Committee’s dependent leadership posts were created about eight years ago with the Steering Committee itself. At the time, it was viewed as a “cohesive way” to coordinate with the Advisory Committee.

“That’s based on an eight-year-old memory,” Lane said after a beat.