MISO Pulls off 1st Face-to-face Meetings Since Start of Pandemic

ORLANDO, Fla. — MISO Board Week meeting marked MISO’s first plunge into in-person gatherings in nearly two years.

“Isn’t it great to be back in person?” CEO John Bear said in opening the Board of Directors’ meeting Thursday, held at Loews’ Sapphire Falls Resort, near Universal Orlando. “I was excited to put my tie on this morning.”

Organization of MISO States President Julie Fedorchak thanked MISO for “forging ahead” with an in-person meeting. She said the RTO showed it can be done in a “safe and pragmatic way.”

“There’s nothing quite like face-to-face communication,” Fedorchak said.

Board Week drew about 90 stakeholder attendees. MISO also offered a virtual attendance option.

Socially distanced attendees at MISO Board Week | © RTO Insider LLC

MISO is charting a return to in-person meetings at its offices in Carmel, Ind.; Eagan, Minn.; and Little Rock, Ark., in late January.

The grid operator plans to reduce meetings of its major stakeholder committees from monthly to eight times per year and rotate which meet in-person, to limit virus exposure. Some stakeholders have misgivings that MISO can accomplish all its market and reliability aims and related FERC filings with just eight meetings per year, four of them in a virtual format. (See MISO Modifies Stakeholder Meeting Schedule.)

Robert Kuzman, MISO’s head of stakeholder relations, called the plan “a good start to get back in person as safely as we can.”

“This is a partnership. We intend to be as efficient as we can while still working through out goals,” Kuzman told the Advisory Committee on Wednesday.

Members asked if MISO would enact vaccination requirements for stakeholders wanting to enter a conference room.

Chief Customer Officer Todd Hillman said MISO is still navigating which requirements in-person meeting attendees must follow.

“Given the 15-state footprint, we’re trying to do right by all,” Hillman said.

Hillman said this week’s event will serve as the “litmus test” for MISO’s on-site meetings. So far, he said, MISO envisions socially distanced attendees, with tables spread apart.

MISO: New Market Platform Running by 2025

MISO said it remains on track for a late 2024 completion for its market platform replacement.

The RTO this year launched its new, one-stop system modeling tool and new market user interface, the nonpublic site market participants use to submit energy bids and offers. It believes it can complete the conversion by late 2024.

MISO is using Siemens smart grid technology to support its new model manager. It plans to cut over to a new method of member data submittal by March and retire its old method of data collection thereafter.

Chief Digital Officer Todd Ramey said MISO will retire both its legacy modeling system and old market user interface in 2022.

Next year, the RTO will work to debut an energy storage participation model on its vintage market platform. It previously said it couldn’t both roll out energy storage offers and focus on the platform replacement. Now it must introduce the storage participation model on both its old and new market platforms. (See MISO: No Choice but to Double Up on 841 Compliance.)

Late next year, MISO anticipates that it will receive its new day-ahead market clearing engine from General Electric.

This year marked the fourth full year of the ongoing swap of the grid operator’s old and rigid platform for a new modular one that can host more complex market offerings.

Board Approves Budget Shaped in part by COVID-19

MISO’s Board of Directors has greenlit a $376.1 million total budget for 2022.

The budget includes a $282.3 million base operating expenses, $37 million in project investments and $56.8 million in other operating expenses.

The 2022 budget is 1% lower than last year’s. MISO executives said pandemic impacts continue to influence budgeting. The RTO originally estimated that it would be largely free of pandemic irregularities in summer 2021.

Like other companies, MISO is contending with cybersecurity issues, supply chain issues, inflation and a tight labor market. CFO Melissa Brown said in fall that MISO was waiting on about $4 million in physical goods, including laptops, tables and new wallboards for the control room, that had yet to be delivered.

Brown also expects that MISO’s higher-than-expected employee vacancy rate will persist into 2022.

She said compared to pre-pandemic levels, MISO is earning a much lower interest rate on its cash, money it usually uses to offset some expenses.

Increasingly severe weather events are also upping spending. Executives said they spent about $2 million over 2021 to answer state- and federal-level questions about MISO’s decision-making and operations during extreme weather events.

Year to date, MISO is $5 million underbudget from its $226 million base operating allotment.

MISO Director Barbara Krumsiek thanked the RTO’s financial team for balancing a budget despite an “extraordinary number of variables.”