By Amanda Durish Cook

MISO is confronting a pair of conflicting motions as some stakeholders push back on including a Texas project in the RTO’s 2017 transmission plan.

One motion — backed by MISO itself — asks the RTO’s Planning Advisory Committee to recommend that the Board of Directors approve the current draft of the 2017 Transmission Expansion Plan, which includes a new $129.7 million, 500-kV line and substation in southeastern Texas. The motion requires PAC sectors to acknowledge that they “have provided written comments and suggestions for improvement of MISO’s planning activities to be included in future planning processes” and be willing to present their stances at a future PAC or board meeting.

But MISO’s Transmission Owners sector submitted an alternative motion calling into question the decision process and cost estimate behind the Texas project, MTEP 17’s only market efficiency project, which is meant to alleviate constraints in the West of the Atchafalaya Basin area straddling Texas and Louisiana. (See Late Changes to Texas Project Frustrate MISO Participants.) The motion recommends the plan’s project list but delays the Texas project “until the time that MISO can adequately address the cost estimation and other concerns that have been raised.”

A number of TOs declined to sign on to the sector motion, including Ameren, East Texas Electric Cooperative, Indianapolis Power and Light, ITC Holdings, MidAmerican Energy, Northern Indiana Public Service Co., Prairie Power, Wabash Valley Power Association and City Water Light & Power.

Vote Looming

PAC sectors will vote on the measures in an email ballot after having to temporarily suspend Robert’s Rules of Order during an Oct. 18 conference in order to simultaneously consider the conflicting motions. Chair Cynthia Crane said that a tie vote would likely prompt the committee to hold an emergency meeting to further discuss its MTEP recommendation.

The System Planning Committee of the Board of Directors will review MISO’s final MTEP 17 draft report in November regardless of whether the PAC recommends the plan in full. The RTO has added 10 projects valued at an additional $1 million since a first draft of the project list was released last month. (See MTEP 17 Proposal: 343 New Transmission Projects at $2.6B.) MTEP 17 now contains 353 recommended transmission projects at $2.7 billion. Of those, 70% are projects driven by local needs and not subject to cost allocation, and 22% are projects needed to maintain baseline reliability.

Back and Forth

At Wednesday’s PAC meeting, MISO project manager David Lucian said the RTO stands by its recommendation of the Texas project, which currently shows a 1.35:1 benefit-cost ratio. He also noted the RTO does not think Hurricane Harvey reconstruction efforts will hamper construction as Xcel Energy has suggested.

In written comments to MISO, Xcel said it had “concerns that have not been, or haven’t had adequate time to be addressed before recommendation,” including a company cost estimate that aligns with MISO’s estimate under minimum project requirements. Xcel concluded that it made sense to delay project approval until the June board meeting in order to give the RTO time to double-check its estimate.

The company said that while it didn’t doubt the Texas project’s economic benefits, it had lingering concerns that MISO had changed the original project scope and MTEP futures weighting midway through the MTEP 17 process, moves that could be perceived as “favoritism.” MISO adjusted the futures weighting for a MISO South study after region’s transmission owners and state regulators asked for less emphasis on a carbon-regulated future. (See MISO Changes MTEP Futures Weighting for South.)

NRG Energy’s Tia Elliott asked why concerns with the projects weren’t brought up sooner. “To delay this project would set very dangerous precedent,” she said.

Texas Public Utility Commissioner Ken Anderson warned against holding up transmission construction when the state clearly needs the project.

“I will say this now: Texas has been waiting five years for any tangible benefit out of the MISO planning process,” Anderson said. “A delay won’t be viewed favorably by the stakeholders here. It will call into question the value proposition. This is a very important project for the state and southeastern Texas.”

Some stakeholders argued that endorsing MTEP 17 in its current form would allow MISO to recommend a flawed project the board. Other stakeholders said the possible market efficiency project, whether competitively bid or not, would be subject to cost reporting to MISO, another safety mechanism in the cost estimate process.

“Notably, I think the cost estimate has changed with each presentation,” Entergy’s Yarrow Etheredge said. She added that the PAC has not been able to provide feedback on the final project estimate.

Counting the Cost Estimates

MISO staff have said the $129.7 million estimate has not changed since early August. In July, the RTO provided a $137.6 million estimate, which included an expansion of two existing substations instead of construction of a new substation. But the project and cost estimate changed after local TO Entergy increased a flowgate rating in March, putting the project below the required 1.25:1 benefit-cost ratio, a detail MISO revealed to stakeholders in July when it was forced to alter the project. At the time, MISO presented stakeholders with possible project alternatives and collected stakeholder opinion before settling on the most recent iteration of the project. (See Late Changes to Texas Project Frustrate MISO Participants.)

GridLiance’s Paul Jett said MISO “clearly followed the process.” He pointed out the altered project’s cost benefit has been consistently above the required 1.25:1 ratio, and that differences between scoping-level and final cost estimates are natural.

“It isn’t new to use scoping-level cost estimates,” he said. “If this really is an issue, MISO’s board will decide in their approval,” he said.

Jett also said it isn’t within MISO’s purview to delay projects based on the possibility of states enacting right of first refusal (ROFR) laws, another argument raised by Xcel. “Ultimately, if there’s a ROFR in Texas, then the project won’t be completely bid,” he said.

‎Brian Pederson, MISO senior manager of competitive transmission administration, said that next year the RTO will continue to host discussions on how to improve planning-level and scoping-level cost estimates.