MISO this week responded to blistering criticism from Illinois lawmakers, insisting that it and its members “fully understand the need for urgency when it comes to building new transmission and adding new generation to the electric grid.”

“It is important to remember that MISO since its inception has been by design and by rule both fuel agnostic and policy neutral,” the grid operator said in a statement to RTO Insider. “Our responsibility is to maintain a reliable electric grid and manage one of the world’s largest energy markets through collaboration with state officials and member utilities seeking to accomplish their energy goals and strategies. This includes supporting the clean energy goals of our states and member utilities.”

MISO pointed out that it has in total interconnected about 30 GW of wind generation and 2 GW of solar generation across its footprint. It said it has acted with resolve to shorten the time it takes for it to study, assign system upgrades and interconnect developers’ new generation through its interconnection queue.

Two Illinois lawmakers who sponsored the state’s Climate and Equitable Jobs Act held a press conference last week to criticize MISO over failing to bring renewable energy in its interconnection queue online to solve its current capacity deficiency. (See Illinois Leaders Blast MISO Inaction on Capacity Crisis.)

Also last week, the Illinois Commerce Commission (ICC) opened a docket directing Ameren Illinois to perform a cost-benefit analysis of remaining in MISO versus departing for PJM or another grid operator (22-0485). The ICC gave Ameren a year to produce the study and said it should cover between five and 10 years from mid-2024, focusing on “reliability, resource adequacy, resiliency, affordability, equity and the impact on the environment, and the general health, safety and welfare of the people of Illinois.”

Chair Carrie Zalewski said the ICC feels it “appropriate to explore whether membership in MISO continues to provide net benefits to Ameren Illinois’ electricity customers.”

MISO said it was “not invited to nor made aware” of the legislators’ press conference.

“We are always available to meet with public officials and provide independent facts and information to help them better understand our industry. This collaboration and information exchange has never been more vital, especially as we work together towards providing consumers with low-cost, uninterrupted power now and in the future,” the RTO said.

The grid operator disputed the legislators’ claim that 34 generation projects from the state wait in the queue. MISO said it’s in fact processing 95 generation interconnection requests totaling more than 15 GW for the state.

“MISO is and continues to be ‘on the job’ of ensuring reliability is maintained while managing through this unprecedented number of unique requests to connect new resources,” it said.

The RTO said that since 2015, it has connected about 2.1 GW worth of new wind and solar resources in Illinois. It said it has also approved another 4.4 GW of renewable energy and natural gas generation that is now just waiting on completion by developers. The grid operator insisted that its interconnection process “continues to be one of the most efficient in the electricity industry.”

MISO also said that $1.6 billion worth of projects from its recently approved $10.3 billion long-range transmission plan (LRTP) will be built in Illinois. (See MISO Board Approves $10B in Long-Range Tx Projects.) It added that an additional $445 million of new transmission approved through its annual MISO Transmission Expansion Plan cycles is set to come online by 2025.

“All this investment will help support Illinois’ state energy policy objectives,” the grid operator said.