CARMEL, Ind. — MISO this month put its package of changes meant to downsize its crammed interconnection queue before FERC and plans to conduct a survey of its interconnection customers to gauge how many projects it should expect.
MISO split its package of stiffer interconnection rules into two filings at FERC. One tackles the increases to milestone payments and tighter land requirements, while the other proposes an annual megawatt cap on project submissions according to a feasibility formula (ER24-340 and ER24-341). MISO has determined there’s only so many potential generation projects it can simultaneously consider and still achieve accurate interconnection studies. (See MISO Relaxes Proposal on Stricter Queue Ruleset.)
To estimate how many submissions it might be facing when it finally opens its project application window in early 2024, MISO will conduct a survey of its interconnection customers on the number, size and type of projects they plan to submit.
During a Nov. 15 Planning Advisory Committee meeting, Director of Resource Utilization Andy Witmeier said MISO won’t publicly share the volume of projects it expects based off survey results. He said the idea is for MISO to have an idea internally of how many projects to prepare for.
Witmeier said MISO will publish a megawatt cap before it opens the 2023 cycle. He said even though applications have been pushed into the first quarter of 2024, MISO still will administer a 2024 queue cycle later in the year.
MISO delayed opening a queue application window this year because it wants the new queue rules in place first to deter another unmanageably large number of gigawatts from joining the queue.
Witmeier said the exact launch of the 2023 application window is contingent on FERC’s decisions on MISO’s pair of filings. MISO asked for a Jan. 22 FERC effective date. Stakeholders can comment on the filings at FERC through Dec. 4.
MISO has proposed that its megawatt cap be based on its ability to develop a reasonable dispatch based on the existing system with existing interconnection requests and the regional and subregional peak load in the study model.
A few weeks before it put its filings to FERC, MISO said a yearly megawatt cap on interconnection requests would be beneficial, incentivizing interconnection customers to submit their project request as soon as possible, instead of at deadline when the application window closes. MISO said that in turn would produce an earlier evaluation of the application, better coordination with transmission owners on selected points of interconnection and a public posting of accepted applications, allowing other developers to make more informed decisions regarding their own projects.
Witmeier said the package of stepped-up requirements would yield higher-quality projects, while the cap would allow a more viable study process for MISO.
“We do believe we need a backstop to limit the size of the queue study,” Witmeier said at an Oct. 11 Planning Advisory Committee meeting. He said scaled-back study cycles would result in more realistic modeling of potential system overloads and voltage support assumptions.
“I realize the package is not what everyone wants,” Witmeier said. But he said he views the more strict rules as becoming a “permanent fixture” of MISO’s interconnection queue.
