Carmel, IN – The Midcontinent Independent System Operator (MISO) Board of Directors have voted to approve a historic transmission plan that stands to benefit Midwestern consumers by strengthening the region’s rapidly expanding and transforming electrical grid. This plan offers the greatest number of lines and most benefits of any transmission plan by a regional transmission organization in history of the United States. Its scale and scope promise billions in benefits for Midwestern consumers by enhancing reliability, supporting clean energy development, and driving down long-term energy costs.
The following is a reaction from Natalie McIntire, senior advocate of the Sustainable FERC Project at NRDC (Natural Resources Defense Council):
“It’s a critical time in the history of our Midwest electricity grid, and its rapid evolution demands the kind of thoughtful planning and decisive action that MISO staff and its Board exercised today by approving this transmission plan. These lines will serve business and residential customers for 40 years or more, supporting the economic growth we’re already seeing today and maintaining reliability as utilities shift to cleaner resources and grapple with the increasing power demands brought on by data center growth. Today, we made a big positive step forward. Tomorrow, we get back to work.”
Further details on the plan:
The plan, detailed in the MTEP24 Report, includes three distinct groups of projects: Tranche 2.1 portfolio, the Joint Targeted Interconnection Queue (JTIQ) portfolio, and a portfolio comprised of local initiatives. As a whole, the plan stands to save households tens of billions of dollars over the next several decades and create hundreds of thousands of jobs.
The Tranche 2.1 portfolio will consist of large regional lines to ensure grid reliability in the face of increasing demand, offer flexibility and optionality during extreme weather emergencies, and support the shift to clean energy that many states in the MISO North subregion have planned. MISO’s conservative analysis of the benefits Tranche 2.1 projects stand to provide suggests that for every $5 spent, customers will receive $10-18 in benefits.
The JTIQ portfolio, meanwhile, will help new power generation near MISO’s border with the Southwest Power Pool (SPP) connect to the grid more quickly and at a lower cost. The third set of projects consist of local upgrades identified by each Transmission Owner in MISO territory as necessary to serve increasing demand and maintain grid reliability at the local level.
NRDC (Natural Resources Defense Council) is an international nonprofit environmental organization with more than 3 million members and online activists. Established in 1970, NRDC uses science, policy, law and people power to confront the climate crisis, protect public health and safeguard nature. NRDC has offices in New York City, Washington, D.C., Los Angeles, San Francisco, Chicago, Beijing and Delhi (an office of NRDC India Pvt. Ltd).
