MISO has formed a special task team to explore rerouting transmission flows during heavy congestion periods.
The Reconfiguration for Congestion Cost Task Team’s meetings are being held behind closed doors, as transmission reconfiguration discussions contain confidential and market-sensitive information.
Speaking during Tuesday’s Planning Subcommittee meeting, Chair Ray McCausland said the group will review past real-world examples of the system’s congestion, necessitating privacy. The group first met in January and will meet again Feb. 17.
The team reports to the Reliable Operations Working Group, which also holds non-public meetings.
MISO’s Independent Market Monitor has recommended members use reconfiguration plans along with ambient adjusted transmission ratings to ease constraints. The Monitor reported that the RTO’s real-time congestion costs more than doubled from late 2020 to late 2021 as more transmission elements began binding year-over-year. Record wind output and high natural gas prices increased the cost of re-dispatching the system to manage constraints, the IMM said.
MISO Ponders Generation as Non-Tx Alternatives
MISO is considering opportunities to convert retired generators to synchronous condensers and serve as non-transmission alternatives.
Some stakeholders have said the grid operator’s increased reliance on renewables may force preserving some generators so they can provide inverter services.
Staff’s Jeanna Furnish said generation assets served as temporary solutions in other RTOs while long-term transmission solutions were built.
Generation owners interested in making the conversion would need to be evaluated under MISO’s annual transmission expansion planning process’ (MTEP) transmission alternatives selection process.
Furnish said staff also believes its existing Tariff Attachment Y process can help govern decisions on converting retiring generators to into synchronous condensers. Under Attachment Y, the RTO analyzes whether a retiring generator must keep operating under a system support resource agreement for reliability reasons.
Furnish said MISO must still develop written agreements, operating procedures, and compensation for generators.
MISO Debuts ’22 Cost Estimates
MISO also introduced its 2022 draft cost estimates for transmission structures, substation equipment construction, and other elements.
The MTEP 22 cost-estimation guide contains updates that reflect higher prices of materials. The RTO has also added costs for aluminum conductor composite core and 765-kV transmission that is interchangeable to about 640 kV.
The grid operator uses the guide to evaluate transmission alternatives in its annual system planning work. Stakeholders have until March 11 to review the draft and submit revisions.
