CARMEL, Ind. — MISO this week said the bulk of its 2024 Transmission Expansion Plan (MTEP 24) will look much the same as last year’s, with an emphasis on long-range transmission planning and near-term congestion studies in addition to its usual round of annual studies.

MISO took stakeholder suggestions in early fall on what additional planning studies it may undertake as part of MTEP 24. However, planning staff warned that MISO is limited next year in what it can accomplish because it’s performing extensive analysis under its ongoing long-range transmission plan.

The Municipals, Co-ops and Transmission-Dependent Utilities Sector requested MISO perform a study centered around the potential effects of widespread energy storage additions and analyze grid-enhancing technologies’ ability to provide flow control.

MISO said it will consider energy storage and grid-enhancing technologies over the course of its regular MTEP studies, but not under a dedicated analysis. The RTO said it’s always open to considering non-transmission alternatives to projects.

“We don’t see the need for a standalone study. We see where the annual MTEP process can address that,” MISO’s Jeremiah Doner said at a Nov. 15 Planning Advisory Committee meeting.

However, MISO said a continuation of this year’s near-term congestion study is on the table as part of MTEP 24. (See MISO May Use Inaugural Near-term Congestion Study to Plan Smaller Tx Upgrades.)

Doner said MISO hasn’t settled on a scope for the near-term congestion study.

“It’s too early to say what that study is going to produce,” he said.

MISO previously said the study again will be exploratory and likely won’t result in project recommendations.

Some members of MISO’s Environmental Sector have expressed disappointment that MISO will take another year of hypothetical testing before it recommends small projects that alleviate congestion.

MISO said it needs more time to refine its transmission planning model to solve congestion on a five-year horizon instead of in the long run. Planners said they are open to tweaking the scope and study assumptions based on stakeholder requests.

Some stakeholders have said MISO already has a template for studying regional congestion and cost allocation with its Targeted Market Efficiency Projects with PJM. But MISO said the MTEP interregional process is materially different.

MISO planners have said that if any market participant is concerned about congestion in the near term, they can pursue a market participant-funded transmission project.