CARMEL, Ind. — MISO said Tuesday that it will add an informational study on near-term transmission congestion to its 2023 transmission-planning cycle.

However, the study is unlikely to result in any cost-shared projects.

Speaking during a Planning Advisory Committee meeting Tuesday, MISO engineering adviser Ben Stearney said the RTO will use near-term economic models to examine congestion up to five years out. MISO typically studies congestion in 10- to 15-year-out modeling, but stakeholders have said congestion is increasing and deserves attention and relief projects.

“I do want to emphasize that MISO will not be proposing any new cost-allocation mechanisms or project types in concert with this analysis,” Stearney said, adding that any identified projects will be taken up and funded only by market participants.

He said staff used production cost models to determine that a new study for the 2023 Transmission Expansion Plan (MTEP 23) “could provide valuable insight into current system congestion as well as inform parallel study efforts.”

“We’ve done some investigation work, but we’ve never really done a study like this,” Stearney said. A near-term congestion study could help inform MISO’s other MTEP modeling work, he said.

Stearney said the RTO’s models were able to recreate some of the footprint’s top binding constraints.

Energy consultant Kavita Maini said in her home base of Wisconsin, congestion is a persistent problem. She said it would be helpful for MISO to pinpoint projects that can mitigate congestion.

“Congestion is very real, and the Independent Market Monitor has spoken about it as well,” Maini said.

Clean Grid Alliance’s Natalie McIntire asked that the grid operator explore pathways beyond participant funding for possible projects emerging from the study. She asked staff not to foreclose the possibility that MISO could land on a project that fits the criteria of a market efficiency project.  

“We’re talking about congestion here that’s costing consumers a lot of money,” McIntire said.

MISO said last spring that it was mulling adding a class of smaller, congestion-relieving projects under its annual transmission planning cycle, inspired by its targeted market efficiency projects with PJM. (See MISO Considers Adding Smaller Congestion Relief Projects.)

The RTO later said it encountered modeling obstacles to adding a new study focused on solving near-term congestion. Staff said they had difficulty recreating some historical congestion in its planning models.

In October, Stearney said MISO needs to improve on how real-time congestion is captured in its modeling to identify worthwhile upgrades.

“MISO regional models are not tailored toward this type of analysis, so additional complications are expected,” the grid operator said at the time.