MISO’s final Transmission Expansion Plan for 2022 (MTEP 22), comprising 382 projects totaling $4.3 billion, earned a hesitant nod from the stakeholder-led Planning Advisory Committee last week.
Four of 11 MISO sectors voted electronically for the annual transmission expansion package while five sectors abstained, some with criticisms. None of the sectors voted to reject MTEP 22.
MISO’s Transmission Owners, Municipals and Co-ops, Affiliates and Independent Power Producers sectors voted in favor of the plan. The RTO’s State Regulatory, Public Consumers, Eligible End Use Customers, Transmission Developers and Environmental sectors abstained.
The Power Marketers and Coordinating sectors didn’t participate. It’s not unusual for the End-Use, Public Consumers, Power Marketers and State Regulatory sectors to abstain or refrain from casting ballots in PAC voting matters. It is unusual, however, for abstentions to outnumber votes in favor of MTEP package recommendations.
The Transmission Developer sector said it abstained because MISO’s $3 billion spend in “other” category projects is large and the grid operator “has not adequately considered regional alternatives that may be more efficient or cost-effective solutions to the identified needs.” The developers also said there’s currently “minimal ability for MISO stakeholders to meaningfully participate in the planning” of projects in the “other” category.
MTEP 22 contains 69 generator interconnection projects costing $547 million; 41 baseline reliability projects at $545 million; and 270 other projects at almost $3.2 billion. The other project category includes TOs’ reliability projects and work needed for load growth and to address existing facilities’ age and condition. Other projects have become the lion’s share of MTEP spending since the 2018 cycle.
The Environmental sector said it took exception to language in MTEP 22’s report. It said MISO should clarify that the changing resource mix “is not driven solely by carbon-reduction goals” and said staff shouldn’t exclusively use natural gas resources as an example of a solution for more available resources.
In the report, the grid operator says it has a responsibility to reliably transition from “today’s resource mix” to “our members’ stated carbon-free goals.” The environmental representatives said MISO should add that the transition is also driven by “economics, state and utility policies, and consumer preferences.”
The sector has previously said that MISO is inappropriately promoting natural gas generation development over other resource types as its reserve margins thin. (See MISO Executives Spotlight Fleet Evolution Planning, Risks.)
“If MISO refuses again to meaningfully address these concerns, then we request that the System Planning Committee of the Board of Directors require MISO to address these requests in a meaningful way prior to sending the draft MTEP 22 report to the full Board of Directors,” the sector wrote.
The annual transmission package now advances to the board’s System Planning Committee for consideration. The full board will then vote on MTEP 22 in early December.
Entergy Arkansas’ $122 million Sandy Bayou 500/230-kV substation to accommodate load growth is this year’s most expensive project. It will tap into the utility’s existing Driver–Shelby 500-kV line.
That second-most expensive project is Ameren Missouri’s need for $120 million of new static synchronous compensators necessary to reinforce the system when the utility retires its 1.2-GW Rush Island coal power plant. (See MISO’s 2022 Tx Planning Cycle Exceeds $4B.)
MISO project manager Sandy Boegeman said MTEP 22’s costs are typical when compared to other recent MTEP packages. She said age and condition drove many of the reasons behind the projects.
MTEP 22 devotes $2 billion to substation work, $1.4 billion to line upgrades, $440 million to new lines, $146 million to voltage devices and $109 million to transformer projects.
The developers behind the Grain Belt Express asked that MISO incorporate its line and other “advanced stage merchant transmission” into annual transmission planning assumptions. (See Invenergy Announces Grain Belt Express Expansion.)
Boegeman reiterated MISO’s stance that it doesn’t include merchant transmission projects in modeling until the projects execute interconnection agreements with MISO or until they have been included in a relevant integrated resource plan.
