MISO and SPP have once again failed to identify any beneficial cross-border transmission projects after a fourth interregional study.

RTO executives broke the news during a virtual meeting of the MISO-SPP Interregional Planning Stakeholder Advisory Committee (IPSAC) on Friday. Stakeholders were unsurprised by the announcement after already hearing indications that the fourth coordinated system plan (CSP) study would be fruitless. (See MISO, SPP Close to Ruling out Joint Projects Again.)

“All the work that we put into the study, I feel like it’s a building block for future studies,” SPP’s Neil Robertson told stakeholders, adding that the studied flowgates would most likely show up in future interregional studies.

This year the RTOs focused on 10 routinely congested flowgates in Minnesota, Iowa, Nebraska, Kansas, Missouri, Oklahoma and Arkansas.

“I fully anticipate that we’ll be seeing these constraints again,” Robertson said, citing expanding renewable generation flows between the RTOs. “The increase in interregional flows are only trending one way, and that’s up.”

MISO and SPP planners said the RTOs’ transmission planning futures scenarios — both updated this year — will probably yield larger project benefit ratios in future joint studies.

The study also turned up discrepancies in the RTOs’ separate project cost estimates, Robertson said. The grid operators will work together to produce more consistent cost estimates in the future, he said. (See SPP Seams Steering Committee: Sept. 17, 2020.)

“We intend to reach a lot more consensus about how cost estimates are determined in the interregional studies. Cost estimates are essential … to figuring cost-benefit ratios, and we’re going to make sure they’re not a roadblock in future studies. I want to stress that this will be a priority,” he said.

Robertson noted that MISO and SPP haven’t worked out exactly how they’ll make their cost estimates line up better.

“The local [transmission owners] have a perspective; the RTOs have a perspective; even the stakeholders have a perspective. Those are the things you have to kind of talk out,” he said.

However, Robertson stressed that differing cost estimates didn’t prevent any project candidates from “crossing the finish line” this year.

“Cost estimates were not the determining factor in a project not getting approved,” he said.

The Advanced Power Alliance’s Steve Gaw asked if the RTOs suffer from a process issue in which they’re not examining solution candidates thoroughly enough.

Robertson said MISO and SPP studied more project candidates than the 34 they presented to stakeholders.

The RTOs have somewhat assuaged stakeholder concerns by announcing a new joint study targeting generation interconnection challenges. (See MISO, SPP to Conduct Targeted Transmission Study.) That study could yield new transmission capacity and thus facilitate development of the renewable generation in the RTOs’ interconnection queues.

Robertson said MISO and SPP have yet to determine the scope of the study, the geographic areas to be studied or whether the study will affect the possibility of a 2021 CSP study. The RTOs plan to hold an annual issues review in the first quarter of 2021 where they will discuss possible needs for transmission solutions.

“All of those questions are yet to be answered. … We’ll share details as soon as we possibly can,” Robertson said. “But please keep in mind that the vast details of the study have yet to be determined.”

MISO Director of Planning Jeff Webb said he expects study results to roll in at the end of 2021.

Stakeholders have repeatedly asked how this study will differ from MISO and SPP’s CSP studies.

“I think that’s a fair question. We’ll have to lay that out more clearly at the kickoff meeting,” Webb said at the MISO Planning Advisory Committee’s meeting Wednesday, though he added that the study will target needs for interconnecting generation, something the CSP studies don’t consider.