By Amanda Durish Cook

CARMEL, Ind. — Now that it has completed a seven-month evaluation of its existing system, MISO says it will provide a detailed decision on how it would rebuild its computer-based market platform in 2019.

The RTO’s near-term focus: to protect and extend the life of the existing market system while exploring and discussing upgrade options with vendors, according to MISO General Counsel Andre Porter.

MISO will present a business case for the making the upgrade at a Sept. 6 workshop on the status of the market platform. MISO’s Board of Directors in June urged RTO officials to provide stakeholders with upgrade details — and a plan — in order to solicit comments. (See MISO: $130M Needed for New Market Platform.)

“Stakeholder participation is critical for the market system enhancement program,” Porter said, urging stakeholders to bring questions to the workshop.

At an Aug. 24 meeting of the board’s Technology Committee, Director Baljit Dail praised the RTO’s stakeholder outreach, but stressed that it should make the upgrade information easier to understand.

MISO expects to select an upgrade option and confirm a vendor in 2019, with roll-out of the new platform targeted for no later than 2024. Officials plan to finalize a budget in October for the estimated $65 million needed to preserve the existing system for another five to seven years, while another $65 million would be allocated to build a new modular platform. The budget will also include a total contingency amount equating to up to 25% of the project cost.

Director Thomas Rainwater commended MISO for being able to finish the evaluation stage of the project on time. “We think that’s a bellwether of what’s to come,” he said.

“The progress you all have made is phenomenal, and you guys should be very proud of this. As a committee, we want this project to be successful. It has the potential for a huge payout,” Dail said, urging officials to provide frequent updates on the project.

As MISO completes the platform rebuild, officials will also explore the intellectual property rights of the software. A deeper discussion on possible copyrights was saved for a closed session of the Technology Committee.

The existing market system, designed by General Electric, was built from scratch in 2005 for $245 million. To incorporate the ancillary services market in 2009, MISO spent $75 million. It spent an additional $30 million to expand the platform upon integration of MISO South in 2013. In any given year, MISO invests about $6 million to $9 million in maintenance and improvement costs, Vice President of System Operations Todd Ramey said.

“The system we use today, and have used since the start of our markets in 2005, is really based on infrastructure used in the late 1990s. This system has started to show signs of its age,” Ramey said.

Several Market Roadmap design changes have been put on hold because of the aging infrastructure, Ramey said. MISO has growing concerns about security and, in some cases, market participants must use older versions of web browsers to view web pages.

ISO-NE and PJM also use GE-designed platforms. Both RTOs will undergo “common” upgrades using a staged approach in the next few years, said Jeff Bladen, MISO executive director of market design.

“In some respects, we’re catching up [with other RTOs], but we have a plan to go beyond what’s done today,” Bladen said during an Aug. 23 Advisory Committee meeting.

Ramey noted that MISO would eventually be forced to change to its platform because GE plans to phase out IT support for the aging software.

The computer overhaul will mostly affect MISO’s day-ahead market and Energy Management System programs. The RTO’s settlement software system is being rebuilt in a different project launched in 2014. The RTO is currently completing system testing and expects to launch the new settlements platform sometime in the fourth quarter, in time for the early spring 2018 roll-out of five-minute settlements.