Board members have directed MISO to seek guidance on the role of the Independent Market Monitor in transmission planning following a year of IMM David Patton criticizing MISO’s nearly $22 billion long-range transmission plan (LRTP) portfolio.  

MISO’s Markets Committee of the Board of Directors voted unanimously on the measure in a special, virtual meeting Feb. 14. The motion from the board instructs MISO’s legal department to reach out to FERC for its perspective on whether the IMM should be scrutinizing the RTO’s transmission planning. It also directs MISO to communicate to the IMM that it will not pay for work related to transmission planning “until further direction from FERC.”  

MISO confirmed it received the committee’s directions. In a statement to RTO Insider, it said it is “working to determine the next steps to effectuate the committee resolution.”  

MISO IMM David Patton was a vocal opponent of the second LRTP portfolio throughout 2024, repeatedly telling planners they were overstating the benefits of the collection of mostly 765-kV lines and deeming the 20-year future assumptions that transmission needs were established upon unrealistic. Patton argued for a downsized portfolio. (See MISO IMM Makes Closing Arguments Against $21.8B Long-range Tx Plan and $21.8B Long-range Tx Plan Goes to Membership Vote; MISO Resolute, IMM Protesting.) 

While many MISO members have said the IMM should not interfere in transmission planning and should concentrate solely on markets, Patton has said he believes planning is within his scope of work because of how planning and markets “interact with one another.” 

The board’s potential IMM funding freeze comes as MISO is gearing up to update the 20-year scenarios it uses as the basis for long-range planning. MISO has planned a first workshop with stakeholders on the futures Feb. 28. The grid operator plans to retool the futures for the remainder of the year and embark on another LRTP portfolio in 2026. (See MISO Pauses Long-range Tx Planning in 2025 to go Back to the Futures.) Patton is likely to disagree with the temporary stop work order, though he ultimately declined to comment on the Markets Committee’s motion.  

MISO Director H.B. “Trip” Doggett said board members and MISO made a portion of the Feb. 14 meeting public in an effort to be more transparent about the board’s activities and budget items related to the IMM.   

By the end of 2024, MISO’s IMM budget was about $236,000 over an approximate $8 million allotment. Doggett said board members analyzed the overrun extensively and found it ultimately was linked to rooting out demand response schemes in the markets and work dedicated to taming market-to-market congestion between MISO and SPP after a North Dakota data center taxed a transmission constraint.  

Doggett said the Monitor’s assessments of the LRTP did not contribute to the cost increase. The committee approved the IMM’s 2024 budget, including overage, in full.  

MISO directors agreed it was time for the board to attempt to clear up the IMM’s authority. Director Nancy Lange said it was appropriate to get “clarity on future work related to the LRTP.”   

“I think it’s an important step,” Director Robert Lurie agreed.  

Some MISO members said they were concerned about the optics of the board’s decision.  

WPPI Energy’s Steve Leovy said while it’s fine for the board to want clarification around the IMM’s role, the whole “situation has a bad look to it” because the Monitor disagreed with MISO’s planning assumptions and benefit calculations. Leovy said he wondered if the board would take such action if the IMM had backed the second LRTP portfolio.  

“This has a bit of an appearance of retaliation, in my opinion. … A bit of an attempt to stifle the discussion,” Leovy said.  

North Dakota Public Service Commissioner Jill Kringstad said her state appreciated the IMM’s independent voice during the planning process. WEC Energy Group’s Chris Plante, speaking as a representative of MISO’s transmission-dependent utilities, also said he found the IMM’s perspective helpful, especially as he questioned the RTO’s processes.  

Following the meeting, ITC’s Brian Drumm said the Markets Committee’s unanimous approval to confirm that the IMM’s scope of duties “do not extend to participation in MISO’s transmission expansion planning processes will provide important clarity for MISO and its stakeholders going forward.”  

Drumm pointed out that MISO has said before that it believes recommendations related to transmission planning are outside the scope of the Monitor’s duties.