CARMEL, Ind. — MISO this week wrapped up discussion on its plans for sharing the costs of the first group of projects identified under its multistage long-range transmission plan.

The grid operator plans to file its cost allocations for long-range transmission projects with FERC by the end of January. The plan employs a 100% postage stamp allocation to load, limited to either MISO Midwest or MISO South subregions. Projects must have a minimum 100-kV rating, cost at least $20 million, and demonstrate a 1:1 benefit-to-cost ratio.

The cost-allocation design is predicated on the belief that initial projects coming out of the RTO’s first long-range planning cycle are unlikely to produce benefits that seep into MISO South unless MISO increases the capacity of its subregional transmission transfer. (See MISO to Test Long-range Tx Allocation Benefits.)

Currently, MISO can only contractually flow 3,000 MW in the Midwest-to-South direction and 2,500 MW in the South-to-Midwest direction.

The grid operator plans to submit the long-range projects for board approval in mid-June. The first smattering of projects will be limited to Midwestern locations. (See MISO Promises Long-range Tx Project Reveal Soon.)

During a Monday meeting of the Regional Expansion Criteria and Benefits Working Group (RECBWG), MISO’s Jeremiah Doner said the proposal has the support of most of the footprint’s transmission owners.

Brattle: South Benefits Unlikely from Midwest 

The Brattle Group, tasked with testing the benefits spread from MISO’s last long-range projects in 2011 to see if they delivered advantages to MISO South, said the region saw only small advantages.

Brattle Group Principal Johannes Pfeifenberger said had members of MISO South — which only dates back to Entergy’s membership in 2013 — been assigned project costs, it would not have met FERC’s roughly commensurate benefit threshold. However, Pfeifenberger recommended that the grid operator keep a systemwide cost-allocation option open for projects that increase transfer capability between the two subregions or are physically located in both.  

MISO said it will make a separate filing later to FERC where it will propose an evaluation method testing whether a project’s costs should be shared on a subregional or systemwide basis. The RTO said it will allocate long-range projects’ costs to the entire footprint if systemwide benefits can be proven through analysis.

“We understand that there aren’t zero benefits that can go between the Midwest and South or vice versa,” Doner said.

MISO’s cost-sharing filing will arrive at FERC as multiple Midwestern states are either trying to or have passed rights-of-first-refusal for their incumbent transmission owners. Wisconsin lawmakers this month introduced a bill that would prohibit the grid operator from awarding construction contracts to competitive developers. Michigan, Minnesota and Iowa have already enacted similar legislation.

MISO, meanwhile, is currently accepting applications from transmission developers to become qualified to bid on competitive projects.

Stakeholders: More Meetings on Cost Allocation 

In addition to tweaking the long-range plan’s cost allocation, the RECBWG also plans to establish draft allocation designs this year for a possible new MISO and SPP Targeted Market Efficiency Project category and projects stemming from the RTOs’ Joint Targeted Interconnection Study. Those studies are aimed at getting interregional transmission projects built to clear up congestion on both sides of their seam and interconnect new generation.

Multiple stakeholders said they doubted that the RECBWG could accomplish those aims with only eight meetings scheduled in 2022. MISO is debuting a more infrequent stakeholder committee meeting schedule as it charts a return to in-person meetings during the coronavirus pandemic. (See MISO Hosts First In-person Meetings amid Pandemic.)

“Cost-allocations discussions are challenging. I don’t think we have enough meetings on the calendar,” Clean Grid Alliance’s Natalie McIntire said.

“To be blunt, all we accomplished over 14 meetings [last year] was to dust off the [Multi-Value Project] allocation,” WPPI Energy’s Steve Leovy said of proposed long-range allocation. “I’m not confident we’re going to be able to make progress given this calendar.”

Doner said the meeting cadence allows MISO engineers to return to their offices and conduct analyses on and test allocation designs. He said the RTO will discuss the possibility of adding more RECBWG meetings next month.