Dive Brief:
- The Midcontinent ISO's 2015 plan to expand its transmission network includes 352 projects with a combined cost of $2.4 billion, with most of those funds going towards baseline reliability projects.
- MISO said its plan will include the first potential competitively-bid market efficiency project, expected to cost up to $72 million.
- While MISO's 2014 and 2015 transmission plans are the same in terms of dollar amounts, last year's plan directed more than half of the funds towards local transmission needs.
Dive Insight:
The ISO's $2.4 billion transmission plan would be the third largest investment since 2003, though it's still dwarfed by 2011's $6.9 billion spend. The 352 projects are heavy on local needs and baseline reliability, and the total includes a market efficiency project MISO believes could be a first of its kind.
The plan includes the "first potential competitively bid Market Efficiency Project," according to the Aug. 16 report to the ISO's Board of Directors System Planning Committee. The grid operator is attempting to alleviate congestion in southern Indiana and is evaluating three proposals.
As RTO Insider points out, the largest project in the mix is also the most controversial — Entergy's $187 million reliability project in Lake Charles, Louisiana. It triggered a review due to dissent over whether or not it is an out-of-cycle project.
Located in southwest Louisiana, the project calls for a new 500 kV switching station east of the Nelson generating station, approximately 10 miles of new 500 kV line to run from the new switching station south to a new 500 kV bulk substation, and installation of a new autotransformer at the bulk substation.
