By Amanda Durish Cook

After recently confronting confusion around the stakeholder task force nomination process, MISO’s Steering Committee is seeking to clarify how the RTO will nominate and elect individuals to fill stakeholder group leadership positions in the future.

The issue emerged at the Steering Committee’s September meeting, when the committee deviated from standard practice by administering separate elections for the positions of chair and vice chair of MISO’s Energy Storage Task Force during the same election cycle. Both candidates for chair expressed an interest in running for vice chair if they weren’t picked for the top spot and, as a result, one nomination for vice chair was submitted after the deadline, leaving the committee to decide whether to include the late submission for voting. Committee members voted to reopen the nominating process, but not all stakeholders were pleased with the process. (See Nomination Redux for MISO Energy Storage Task Force.)

MISO’s Stakeholder Governance Guide is silent on the issue of moving election dates, accepting late nominations or dealing with instances when stakeholders simultaneously run for two leadership positions in the same committee.

The Steering Committee will take up the issue in January, when it will vote on redline clarifications to the elections process outlined in the governance guide. The changes could allow consecutive ballots in instances where a stakeholder wants to run for chair but also be considered eligible for vice chair should they lose their bid for the chair position.

Ameren’s Ray McCausland said his company supports Stakeholder Governance Guide changes that allow a stakeholder to run for both chair and vice chair simultaneously, with the option for runoff elections when needed. If the same candidate is elected to both positions, the candidate would accept the chair position, and a runoff election would be held using the previous slate of vice chair candidates. Currently, elections for chair and vice chair for all MISO stakeholder committees and groups are held simultaneously via electronic ballot among MISO members with voting rights. No late nominations are accepted.

Madison Gas and Electric’s Megan Wisersky said that while she understood the RTO’s wish not to dissuade stakeholders from running for leadership positions, she could also see the value in compelling individuals to focus on running for a single position.

“I’m not much help here,” she joked during a Nov. 7 conference call.

WPPI Energy also advocated for the continued simultaneous election of chair and vice chairs, requiring candidates to choose to run for a single position and not both leadership positions.

McCausland argued that preventing a candidate from running for both positions might lead to empty vice chair positions.