By Amanda Durish Cook

The first MISO-SPP interregional project inched closer to reality Thursday with a vote of confidence from the MISO Planning Advisory Committee.

Four stakeholder sectors in attendance at a special April 27 PAC meeting ― Environmental, Transmission Owners, Coordinating and Power Marketers ― voted unanimously to approve the South Dakota project’s regional review. The $5.2 million project will relieve congestion on the tie line shared between the Western Area Power Administration and MISO’s Xcel Energy territory. (See 1 Project Recommended for MISO-SPP Coordinated Plan.)

The PAC charter does not require a voting sector quorum for project recommendation votes. MISO moved its stakeholder vote from the Interregional Planning Stakeholder Advisory Committee to the PAC late last year amid concerns that a vote in the IPSAC wouldn’t give stakeholders time to process voting issues and would be poorly attended. (See “PAC Could Hold IPSAC Vote Outside of Interregional Meetings,” MISO Planning Advisory Committee Briefs.)

SPP, meanwhile, will hold its stakeholder vote at a Seams Steering Committee teleconference May 3. SPP officials have also recommended its stakeholders approve the project, the only joint recommendation to come out of the RTOs’ coordinated system plan study conducted last year.

Both stakeholder votes are nonbinding. The MISO-SPP Joint RTO Planning Committee — composed of staff with ultimate say over interregional issues — can override the votes.

Before the vote was conducted, MISO officials hinted that they would press for regional review regardless of their stakeholders’ views.

“We’re just trying to memorialize stakeholder opinion,” MISO’s Eric Thoms explained of the vote.

MISO PAC liaison Jeff Webb said the small project has already come a long way because it comes recommended by both MISO and SPP leadership, a first for the RTOs. “This is a procedural motion more than anything,” he said. “We’re merely seeking input … and we anticipate that no stakeholders would oppose the project. We have the right to take your vote under advisement, and we’re very much inclined to check this project out.”

MISO will proceed with a regional review process only if the JRPC also votes in favor of the project. If it is approved, the RTO would most likely process the project as part of its 2017 Transmission Expansion Plan, said Davey Lopez, MISO adviser for planning coordination and strategy.

At an April 25 Informational Forum, MISO CEO John Bear said the possible approval of the first MISO-SPP interregional project would be a “rare” occurrence, given the complex approval process the project must clear.

MISO would designate its portion of the project as miscellaneous, unable to qualify for cost allocation, because it does not meet the 345-kV voltage threshold required of its market efficiency projects. The RTOs have no voltage threshold on interregional projects, but they do have a $5 million cost criteria, a requirement that either RTO must see a 5% or greater share of the project’s benefits and a condition that the estimated in-service date be within 10 years of project approval.

Acting on a complaint by Northern Indiana Public Service Co., FERC last year ordered MISO to eliminate its 345-kV threshold on interregional projects with PJM. (See FERC Signals Bulk of NIPSCO Order Work Complete.)