ORLANDO, Fla. — MISO board members last week greenlit the $9 billion, 572-project 2023 Transmission Expansion Plan (MTEP 23), which contained the most expedited project reviews the RTO has ever conducted.
MISO directors unanimously approved the 2023 collection of transmission projects at a Dec. 7 board meeting. MTEP 23 more than doubles the spending of last year’s package and triples that of MTEP 21.
Executive Director of Transmission Planning Laura Rauch has said MISO expects bigger MTEP projects to continue in future cycles. She said MISO will perform economic screens on projects that may have regional potential on a case-by-case basis and will conduct alternatives analysis on large, complex projects.
Regarding MTEP 23, Rauch said the RTO is “confident” it landed on an appropriate alternative for the largest MISO South project to help relieve the strained Amite South load pocket in southeast Louisiana.
“Facilities that propose new lines or are larger in cost and potential impact on the system are prioritized for analysis. Roughly 75% of MTEP 23 projects didn’t meet criteria for alternative solution analysis, as they address needs with no cost-effective alternatives,” Rauch said during a November System Planning Committee meeting of the MISO Board of Directors that was held in preparation for last week’s vote.
Just three of MISO’s 11 member sectors voted to support the MTEP 23 package of projects. (See 3 MISO Sectors Vote to Recommend MTEP 23, Majority Silent.)
Since MTEP 03, $35 billion in transmission investment has gone into service in MISO, with $23 billion planned or under construction. The $23 billion includes the $10 billon first portfolio of long-range transmission plan projects approved last year.
MISO members, meanwhile, mused about how the process behind expedited project reviews under the MTEP cycle might change.
The RTO has said the growing number of expedited project review requests it studied under its MTEP 23 planning cycle means it should rethink its expedited review process for transmission projects that can’t wait until the usual December MTEP approval to begin construction. (See “MISO: Expedited Review Process Needs Revamp,” MTEP 23 Catapults to $9.4B; MISO Replaces South Reliability Projects.)
MISO said it fielded more than 30 expedited project review requests — double the number it received in 2022 — predominantly because of new load interconnections.
Some members said the increasing number and growing sizes of projects requested for expedited treatment cause concern.
“The size, the magnitude of the projects are becoming a bigger deal,” Clean Grid Alliance’s Beth Soholt said. She said MISO might consider increased transparency around project requests and its review.
ITC’s Brian Drumm said MISO could raise its minimum $1 million threshold for projects to be vetted when they’re built out of the usual MTEP cycle. He said the dollar limit has been in place for years and hasn’t been adjusted for inflation. A higher threshold would scale back the projects that require expedited review and mean the RTO isn’t spending time reviewing insignificant projects, Drumm said.
LS Power’s Brenda Prokop said MISO might consider more proactively planning transmission for new load so fewer expedited reviews are needed.
MISO will hold more discussions on how it might overhaul its expedited review process in public stakeholder meetings next year.
