MISO has multiple planning topics to tackle on the horizon, with work involving an update of merchant HVDC interconnection procedures, making expedited transmission project reviews more manageable, and evaluating co-located load and generation seeking interconnection.

The RTO discussed the trio of subjects with stakeholders during an Interconnection Process Working Group (IPWG) teleconference July 23 and a Planning Subcommittee teleconference July 24.

Every-other-month Expedited Projects

MISO said it hopes to pivot to a bimonthly processing approach for transmission projects submitted by members for expedited treatment.

During the PSC call, Senior Expansion Planning Engineer Amanda Schiro said MISO wants to kick off an expedited project request window every other month. Schiro said the RTO needs more structure in the process, and an every-other-month schedule to study requests for system impacts would help it internally manage the increased volume of out-of-cycle projects.

Currently, MISO processes requests for projects that cannot wait until end-of-the-year approval through the annual Transmission Expansion Plan (MTEP) as they are received. The RTO originally hoped to roll out a quarterly expedited process but was met with stakeholder resistance. (See MISO Starting from Scratch on New Schedule for Reviewing Expedited Tx Projects.)

A bimonthly process would allow MISO to better manage its workload and the unpredictable nature of expedited project requests, Schiro said. She said members would be free to submit their expedited projects at any time.

“We understand that loads pop up at any time, so we do still want to have an on-demand submittal,” Schiro said.

MISO plans to study smaller expedited projects in batches while larger, complicated projects will get individual assessments. Schiro said MISO recognizes that different expedited requests will require different timelines for review, adding that the RTO has taken about 100 days to study some of its larger expedited projects.

Schiro said MISO intends to remove the requirement that projects necessitated by state departments of transportation need to enter the expedited process. She said such requests tend to be minor and often involve relocating a line to the other side of a highway. Those projects would be routed instead to MISO’s MTEP portal, where the RTO will check them over and allow them to proceed.

MISO also wants fewer dedicated technical study task force meetings, where expedited project reviews are discussed. Schiro said it is burdensome to compile materials and plan meetings, and the RTO wants the meetings to similarly transition to an every-other-month cadence for staff to discuss groupings of projects.

The RTO said that when it first developed its expedited process, it fielded about four to six additional studies per MTEP cycle, with project approvals allowing quick funding for immediate reliability needs. Over the past three years, however, MISO said larger, more complex load additions with quick turnaround times have become the main reason for growing expedited treatment requests. MISO this year is expecting at least 30 expedited requests.

Invenergy Seeks Changes to HVDC Connection Procedures

Having submitted its Grain Belt Express for interconnection to the MISO system, Invenergy has approached MISO with ideas to improve its process for incorporating merchant HVDC.

Invenergy’s Arash Ghodsian told the IPWG that as Grain Belt has become the first to navigate MISO’s interconnection process, it has “come across a number of areas for improvement.”

Merchant HVDC lines that want to connect to the MISO system must follow Attachment GGG of the tariff to gain injection rights. The process looks familiar to the RTO’s interconnection process: Developers must pay study deposits, submit to studies and agree to pay for network upgrades if necessary.

However, Ghodsian said MISO’s HVDC interconnection procedures do not include a provision that allows an HVDC developer to utilize its connection to the grid before all network upgrades are complete. The RTO allows such limited operations for projects in its generator interconnection queue.

Ghodsian said Invenergy hopes MISO and stakeholders will discuss that recommendation and other areas for improvement at upcoming IPWG meetings.

Grain Belt Express struck an effective transmission connection agreement with MISO in February.

NextEra Makes 2nd Overture for Bundled Studies

MISO and stakeholders will likely consider a dedicated study and registration process for new generation contingent on large loads in the months ahead.

NextEra Energy’s Erin Murphy again said her company and others want MISO to create a designated market participation and registration for co-located load and generation behind the same point of interconnection. (See “NextEra Asks MISO to Study New Load and Generation Duos,” MISO Starting from Scratch on New Schedule for Reviewing Expedited Tx Projects.)

During the PSC teleconference, Murphy said MISO currently has a “disconnect” between the load growth studies completed under annual MTEPs and its studies for new generation through its interconnection queue. She asked MISO to “harmonize” how it considers generation contractually dependent on new load to be “poised and ready” for the rise of data centers.

NextEra has suggested the connected studies should be reserved for “hyperscale loads” and that MISO could institute a minimum size requirement to consider the studies simultaneously. The RTO could also make generation interconnection agreements conditional on the new loads, Murphy said.

Evaluating load and generation together in some cases will result in more efficient and economical study results, she argued. NextEra is looking to collaborate with stakeholders to bring a recommendation on how to best connect load studies to their dedicated generation.

Coalition of Midwest Power Producers’ Travis Stewart said NextEra’s idea is imperative to reflect the new load growth reality in the footprint.

“Large loads are popping up all over the country, and this would bring MISO in lockstep with other regions,” Stewart said.

Other stakeholders said they worried that load-dependent generation studies would complicate a queue process that MISO is currently trying to streamline. They said load might need to put up securities to mitigate queue restudy costs.

Murphy said the goal of the proposal is to provide more certainty in the interconnection process, not elicit more restudies. She also said MISO could place some parameters on how far generation can be sited from the load before they are no longer considered in tandem.