By Amanda Durish Cook
A MISO task team is slated for retirement after successfully developing several changes to the RTO’s competitive transmission process that were approved by FERC.
The Planning Advisory Committee on Tuesday passed a motion recommending that the Steering Committee approve the immediate retirement of the Competitive Transmission Task Team. Six sectors voted in favor with three abstaining.
Brian Pedersen, MISO senior manager of competitive transmission administration, said the task team has completed its work to improve the selection process behind competitive transmission projects. The team was created last December days after the conclusion of the RTO’s first competitive process, for the Duff-Coleman 345-kV transmission project in southern Indiana and western Kentucky. (See LS Power Unit Wins MISO’s First Competitive Project.)
“In 2017, we sought out incremental operational changes to scale our competitive transmission process. From our perspective, this has been a successful process,” Pedersen said during a Dec. 19 PAC conference call.
Consequently, MISO submitted five FERC filings to amend the competitive process portions of its Tariff — all of which were accepted without changes by the commission. (See FERC OKs Changes to MISO Competitive Tx Process.)
The changes allow the RTO to:
- Review and weight competitive projects that contain both substation and transmission line facilities (ER18-44);
- Stagger its current proposal submission and evaluation timelines should the RTO encounter two simultaneous competitive projects (ER18-41);
- Replace the annual qualified competitive transmission developer recertification process with a biennial process (ER18-40); and
- Request a description of safety measures transmission developers will take during both construction and operations and maintenance (ER18-42).
A fifth filing was made to correct grammar, citation and formatting errors (ER18-39).
MISO updated its Business Practices Manuals and request for proposal forms to align with the changes, Pedersen said. He added that MISO will still take up any future stakeholder improvement suggestions “as conditions permit.”
Pedersen said the changes will be in effect for MISO’s second-ever competitive project, the $130 million Hartburg-Sabine 500-kV line market efficiency project in eastern Texas, which will be bid out in early 2018. MISO has hired two new employees to help with the evaluation and selection process for the project, which includes substation construction — a first for its competitive projects.
The project — originally intended to be approved with MISO’s 2017 Transmission Expansion Plan — is currently subject to an approval delay while the RTO awaits a FERC decision on separating cost allocation zones in Texas and Louisiana. (See MISO Board Approves $2.6B Transmission Spending Package.) The Board of Directors has pledged to approve the project no later than Feb. 5, and the RTO plans to issue its RFP on Feb. 6. The window for proposals will be open until July 20, with MISO expecting to announce a developer no later than Jan. 2, 2019.
Pedersen said the Hartburg-Sabine project will be evaluated similarly to last year’s evaluation of the Duff-Coleman project, with cost and design details weighted at 30%, project implementation at 35%, operations and maintenance at 30%, and transmission planning participation at 5%.
Forty-seven existing qualified developers will not be required to recertify next year after FERC accepted MISO’s biennial qualification process, although Pedersen said developers must still disclose annual audited financial statements along with statements of any material changes to keep the RTO aware of developments such as bankruptcies or business name changes.
Queue Task Force Extension
PAC sectors also voted overwhelmingly to extend the RTO’s Interconnection Process Task Force through December 2018. The group will oversee and suggest further improvements to MISO’s major queue process changes made at the beginning of this year. (See FERC Accepts MISO’s 2nd Try on Queue Reform.)
