MISO plans to file with FERC by mid-March a proposal to implement a fast-tracked interconnection queue lane for select generation projects. 

The grid operator gathered stakeholders for a final workshop March 7 before advancing its proposal to introduce an “expedited resource addition study” in its queue. Its plan would have the RTO processing projects designated as essential by regulators through a separate queue equipped with specialized, dedicated studies instead of the cluster-style studies it uses in the regular queue. 

MISO has notified FERC staff of its intention to file. The grid operator hopes to oversee its first applicants at the beginning of June. 

“We’ve heard from FERC staff that it’s one of the most talked-about changes in the industry right now,” Director of Resource Utilization Andy Witmeier said. He said several in MISO’s stakeholder community want the fast track to help resolve imminent resource inadequacy. (See Generation Developers Ask for Scoring System on MISO Queue Fast Track.) 

Witmeier said MISO’s current queue is not up to the challenge of processing new projects in a timely manner because of a pileup of study delays. As of Feb. 6, the queue contains about 308 GW across 1,695 projects, according to the RTO. 

MISO Executive Director of Resource Adequacy Scott Wright has said the RTO wants to conduct the serial, expedited studies to “fill the gap for a few years” until the normal queue improves so that routine processing of projects can be completed within the span of a year. 

But for now, Witmeier said it is important for necessary generation projects to get the benefit of standalone studies that clearly show estimated network upgrade costs without the numerous project dropouts of the regular queue muddying study results. 

Witmeier said projects “must be tied to some reliability or RA need” to enter the express lane. Developers submitting applications would need to submit a new form and documentation from their applicable regulators demonstrating a project’s importance. 

MISO would not independently evaluate the need for projects, explaining that would trample on states and load-serving entities’ role as resource planners, Witmeier said. “We are not the ones to decide what generation should serve load. We study what reliability impacts occur because of generation additions, load additions,” he said. 

Projects that take advantage of the express lane would be expected to be in operation no later than 2032. In the first two years of the express lane, projects would enjoy MISO’s usual three-year grace period of commercial operation dates beyond its three-year in-service expectation. Projects that enter the fast track in 2027 and 2028, however, would be limited to a single three-year period from developer submission to produce power. 

The RTO intends to retire the fast track after a few years. 

Witmeier said the elimination of the additional three-year extension for projects entering in later years tries to recognize the current, frazzled state of the industry’s supply chain and the hope that it can be repaired within a few years. 

But Wisconsin Public Service Commissioner Marcus Hawkins said he thought the structure could open MISO to “bottlenecks” where developers rush to enter projects. 

“It’s weird, and it’s hard to explain, and it’s something I think FERC would find problematic,” Hawkins said of the split deadline structure during an Organization of MISO States meeting in late February. 

Warren Hess of Central Municipal Power Agency/Services asked how the RTO would ensure it was not overbuilding transmission by maintaining separate queue processes. 

“There are multiple parallel processes going on all the time at MISO,” Witmeier said, adding that the Business Practices Manuals mandate double-checking the necessity of transmission projects before they are finalized. 

“The one, new wrinkle — and it’s not new — is you can change the flows and have a new constraint show up,” Witmeier explained of the simultaneous queue studies. 

He said that while the new process could introduce the “slight chance of over-allocating transmission capacity,” MISO is on the lookout for such constraints through its annual transmission planning.