Entergy companies have expedited a transmission project and canceled four others, the corporation told stakeholders during a MISO South planning meeting on Monday.

Entergy New Orleans said construction of a new 230-kV substation cannot wait on the 2021 MISO Transmission Expansion Plan’s (MTEP 21) December approval by the Board of Directors. The utility said the substation is needed to ensure the Sewerage and Water Board of New Orleans’ power reliability for stormwater drainage. It said waiting on approval would jeopardize its targeted June 1, 2023, in-service date.

MISO said Entergy is free to proceed with construction. Staff’s Zack Bearden said analyses performed as part of the expedited project review indicated that the project will be able to reliably serve the increased load without adverse system impacts.

Entergy New Orleans will fund most of the $27 million project, with Entergy Louisiana picking up nearly $3 million.

Meanwhile, Entergy Arkansas is withdrawing four small baseline reliability projects in northern Arkansas that were approved under MTEP 18.

The utility said the outage concerns that prompted the projects are no longer an issue. The canceled projects include the rebuild of 161-kV line segments varying in length from almost four miles to 13.5 miles.

Entergy Arkansas is also withdrawing the construction of a 115-kV breaker station near Little Rock.

MISO’s William Kenney said staff will evaluate all the withdrawal requests and return to a later South subregional planning meeting with a determination of the projects’ reliability value.