MEMPHIS, Tenn. — MISO leadership took advantage of its Board Week in Memphis to meet with Memphis Light, Gas and Water staff, who are mulling a split from the Tennessee Valley Authority and a new source of wholesale power.
MISO was one of 27 respondents to MLGW’s requests for proposals for an alternative wholesale supplier. The utility is reviewing the proposals and has yet to announce whether it will depart TVA. (See Memphis Moves Closer to Breaking from TVA.)
MLGW representatives and Memphis-based lawyers and activists attended MISO’s Thursday board meeting.
Former MLGW CEO Herman Morris, Jr., who now practices energy law, said he appreciated getting to know the people behind MISO.
“The City of Memphis is at a crossroads,” said Pearl Eva Walker, representing the Memphis Has the Power campaign, an offshoot of the Southern Alliance for Clean Energy. “While TVA heralds its low rates, Memphians struggle to afford power.”
Walker expressed frustration at Memphis’ high energy burdens and TVA’s lagging decarbonization goals, which render the city’s own climate goals unattainable. She also said it’s unacceptable that the federal agency now dumps tons of coal ash near a South Memphis residential area of 72,000 people.
“We can’t trust TVA,” she said. “They have no accountability. They have no integrity.”
Walker urged MISO to work with the utility and forge a relationship should Memphis decide to join the RTO. The city will need to develop its transmission infrastructure if it’s to access MISO’s wholesale markets.
MISO Community Mourns Vannoy
MISO’s Kevin Vannoy | © RTO Insider LLCMISO said last week that Kevin Vannoy, its director of market design, passed away unexpectedly on March 20.
An emotional CEO John Bear remembered Vannoy as a “phenomenal” link between the RTO and stakeholders whose knowledge, warm manner and quick wit benefited many.
Vannoy was with the grid operator for more than 15 years and was a fixture at Market Subcommittee and Resource Adequacy Subcommittee (RASC) meetings, often delivering presentations and leading stakeholder conversations.
RASC Chair Kari Hassler, of Xcel Energy, recalled Vannoy as an invaluable source of knowledge and “a reasonable voice in stakeholder discussions.”
MISO Expects to be On-budget in 2022
MISO’s finances are tracking to be on budget in 2022, CFO Melissa Brown told the board.
Brown said her team predicts that by year’s end, the RTO will pay about $282 million in base expenses and $47 million in project investments. Both projections are within a 1% variance from the 2022 budget set last year.
MISO has spent $22 million of its base budget and $2.3 million of its project investment budget so far this year.
Brown said inflation has taken the financial team a little off-guard.
“MISO continues to monitor the evolving labor market dynamics, supply chain situation, interest rate environment as well as inflation, which may lead to more significant adjustments to the 2022 forecast in the coming months,” she said.
Last year, the grid operator was 1.4% under its $271 million base budget and 5.5% under its $50 million project investment budget.
Brown said the underspend was primarily due to lingering COVID-19 impacts, including reduced travel spending, diminished off-site training and untouched salaries and benefits allotments because of unfilled positions.
Board Asks for Better Succession Planning
The grid operator’s directors are becoming concerned about succession planning within their ranks, according to the board’s annual self-evaluation.
They pointed out that most of the nine directors are in their sixth or seventh year of service. The directors said they and MISO should work on ensuring the board doesn’t suffer gap years where it’s light on experience with the RTO’s systems and protocols.
MISO directors are limited to serving three three-year terms.
