CARMEL, Ind. — MISO has told stakeholders not to expect sweeping, greenfield projects as a result of its new transfer capability study with PJM.
Speaking at a May 29 Planning Advisory Committee meeting, MISO Director of Expansion Planning Jeanna Furnish said MISO and PJM anticipate sharing more details around possible projects in the first half of 2025. However, the projects probably won’t be staggering in scale.
MISO Director of Economic and Policy Planning Christina Drake said MISO and PJM’s transfer capability study first must entail an engineering analysis before the RTOs begin future work on a new project type or adding a new cost allocation method to the MISO-PJM joint operating agreement.
After prodding from state regulators and consumer groups, MISO and PJM in early May announced they would embark on a new type of interregional planning study. (See MISO, PJM Agree to Perform New Type of Joint Transmission Study.)
Drake said MISO and PJM might create a new project type to expand interregional transfer capabilities.
But she said MISO and PJM first need to “explore the edges” of their joint modeling. She said the first study will center on near-term construction, not the more complex, interregional projects that require greenfield development. The first study probably will aid “future work on project type and cost allocation,” Drake said.
Drake said it’s likely MISO and PJM will identify project needs even though the study was described as “informational” by the RTOs.
“Informational does not imply that we’re just going to post results and not bring anything forward,” Drake said.
Invenergy’s Arash Ghodsian asked whether MISO and PJM’s study also will focus on interconnection upgrade needs on the seam that have been showing up for years in the RTOs’ interconnection queues.
Drake said the focus of the study is strictly interregional transfers, not enabling more generator hookups, as is the case with MISO and SPP’s Joint Targeted Interconnection Queue study. Drake also said it’s unlikely MISO and PJM will develop a major, multivalue style project stemming from the initial study.
Nevertheless, Ghodsian said the study is “long due” and Invenergy looks forward to the effort.
Drake said MISO is meeting with PJM regularly on the nascent study.
