CARMEL, Ind. — MISO is planning to eliminate temporary suspensions of generating resources, a move the RTO says will provide resource owners more flexibility.

The existing Attachment Y suspension status requires that owners supply MISO with a return date. Under the new rules, the status would be reduced to a binary option: on or off.

Fewer options actually translate into greater flexibility for resource owners, MISO adviser Joe Reddoch told stakeholders at the April 19 Planning Advisory Committee meeting. He said generation owners will now be able to enter a catch-all “economic shutdown” period using an Attachment Y, giving them time to evaluate options over a planning year before rendering a final decision to retire.

The decision point will align with the Planning Resource Auction, with interconnection service intact for a full planning year after a notice to go offline is submitted. If approved by FERC, the new process will be added to MISO’s Tariff.

The same planning yearlong rescission period will apply to system support resources whose status has been lifted by MISO.

“Once a generator submits an Attachment Y retirement notice, they cannot change their minds. If they do, they have to re-enter the interconnection queue,” Reddoch said of MISO’s current process.

Reddoch added that MISO’s current six-month suspension timeline is “a bit cumbersome” with multiple filing deadlines. He also said that suspension notices can sometimes “mask” lost megawatts because MISO assumes suspended resources will eventually come back online.

The changes stem from the Independent Market Monitor’s 2013 State of Market Report recommendation that MISO improve alignment between its Attachment Y process and the PRA timeline. The Monitor said that an Attachment Y unit that participates and clears in the PRA should be allowed to “defer the effective date of retirement.” (See “Aligning Attachment Y Process with PRA,” MISO South-to-Midwest Transfer Limit Upped for 2017/18 PRA.)

Once an Attachment Y request is submitted, MISO will carry out an Attachment Y retirement reliability study as usual, but with one added feature: Upon completion of the study, MISO will publicly post study results. Some stakeholders expressed concern at the heightened transparency.

Indianapolis Power and Light’s Lin Franks said publicly posting the results might inadvertently create a panic in some companies that have not publicly announced plans to retire.

“You may understand that you’re trying to take a middle ground, but the guy at the plant [losing his job] doesn’t understand that,” Franks said.

“That’s fair enough,” Reddoch replied.

Other stakeholders asked MISO to consider deferring public results of Attachment Y until the new decision point deadline, but Reddoch said early warning is key when planning for retirements.

“When you keep things confidential, it’s hard to talk about upgrades or projects that are needed when we can’t talk about why those projects might be needed,” Reddoch said. “If you don’t start on upgrades early enough, and a plant does retire, you might have reliability issues. Our thinking is you want to get started early on the timeline if these things require a number of years to complete.”

WPPI Energy’s Steve Leovy suggested that Franks’ company could initiate MISO’s optional nonbinding Attachment Y study. Franks said IPL had gone through the “horrible” process and does not want to repeat it. “Okay, that sounds like another issue,” Leovy said.

The Environmental Law & Policy Center’s Justin Vickers said his firm supported MISO’s stepped-up transparency, saying that posting study results would assist in preparations and be “good for the footprint.”

MISO will take stakeholder feedback on proposed Tariff changes through May 10.

48 Competitive Tx Contenders in 2017/18

MISO is reviewing qualifications of 48 transmission developers that submitted documentation to become or renew their status as competitive developers for this year’s planning cycle, the same number as last year. The exercise is likely to be moot, however, as MISO is not expected to announce a competitive project this year.

— Amanda Durish Cook