MISO is putting stakeholders on notice that withdrawals are imminent in its record-setting 150-GW interconnection queue.
Speaking at a meeting of the Interconnection Process Working Group on Monday, MISO Manager of Resource Utilization Jesse Phillips said he expects to see up to a quarter of the new entries withdraw projects soon. October marks the first phase of the queue’s three-part definitive planning phase, when interconnection studies are performed and upgrade costs assigned. Phillips said projects will leave the queue before ever making it to the first phase.
“As we know, the queue fluctuates, and this is … a volatile period,” Phillips said. “We already have seen some withdrawals.”
MISO’s queue is back in the triple digits after the RTO processed the 2021 collection of new generation hopefuls. New proposals pushed the interconnection queue to 980 projects totaling 153 GW, MISO’s largest ever. (See MISO IC Queue Tops 150 GW; Solar Maintains Lead.)
Developers this year submitted 487 applications representing approximately 77 GW; 83% of the proposed new megawatts are renewable.
“Solar requests are the highest fuel requested,” Phillips reported.
MISO said the 2021 applicant group marked the first time that requests for energy storage interconnections outstripped requests for wind generation interconnection. The RTO processed 44 GW worth of solar requests, 12 GW in storage projects and a little more than 9 GW in wind requests.
MISO has not yet set an application deadline for generation project plans for its 2022 queue cycle.
