CARMEL, Ind. — MISO’s Planning Subcommittee this year will tackle possible modifications to the RTO’s expedited project review process, which allows transmission developers to begin construction earlier than MISO’s annual approval process usually allows.
The RTO’s Planning Advisory Committee on Wednesday voted to allow the subcommittee to begin deliberations in March on a new schedule for the study process to better manage the increasing number of requests.
At a Jan. 24 PAC meeting, expansion planning engineer Amanda Schiro said expedited requests until recently have been few enough not to burden MISO resources.
“However, in the past three years, we have seen large load additions that increase the volume and complexity of expedited requests,” Schiro said, adding that requests often are driven by “spot load growth,” such as data centers.
MISO late last year said it’s become inundated with expedited review requests and that it likely needs to overhaul how it handles transmission projects that can’t wait until the usual December board approval to begin construction. (See MISO Board Approves $9B MTEP 23; Members Deliberate on New Expedited Review Rules.)
Schiro said the expedited requests and their “isolated processes” are causing a “strain” on MISO’s planning staff to study all expedited requests alongside the RTO’s annual Transmission Expansion Plan (MTEP).
Schiro said MISO held 17 meetings over 2023 to review individual projects and the RTO needs to reduce the frequency of meetings. She said MISO might contain project submission times and introduce a timeline to accomplish a more streamlined process.
“We’d like to reduce that number both for us and our stakeholders,” she said.
Schiro said when conducting outreach on the issue, stakeholders urged MISO to keep the “valuable” expedited process. She said MISO has no plans to discontinue expedited reviews.
However, the Union of Concerned Scientists’ Sam Gomberg said he thought MISO’s plan to focus only on the expedited review timeline “misses an opportunity” for the RTO to plan for load additions more proactively.
Under the existing process, MISO conducts individual studies on expedited requests to confirm the projects won’t result in reliability violations before allowing them to proceed ahead of the usual MTEP cycle.
Stakeholders have suggested MISO enact voltage or cost thresholds so small projects don’t have to go through an expedited project review.
Generally, projects must rate at least 100 kV or cost at least $1 million to be considered candidates under MTEP and compelled to apply for expedited treatment when necessary.
This month, MISO analyzed an expedited need from Jonesboro City Water and Light, which proposed an $874,000 rebuild of a 69-kV line in northeastern Arkansas due to state Department of Transportation work. Some stakeholders at a Jan. 16 South Technical Study Task Force questioned whether MISO should have devoted time to examining such a small project.
