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The American Council on Renewable Energy Macro Grid Initiative published an August 9th analysis titled:

Enabling Low-Cost Clean Energy and Reliable Service Through Better Transmission Benefits Analysis: A Case Study of MISO’s Long Range Transmission Planning (“Analysis”)

The Analysis was authored by Rob Gramlich of Grid Strategies LLC.

The Midcontinent independent System Operator (MISO) is an independent, not-for-profit member-based organization whose activities include:

• Managing the generation/transmission of high-voltage electricity across 15 U.S. states and the Canadian province of Manitoba
• Managing the energy markets in the MISO region
• Grid planning for the future

MISO’s territory includes a portion of Arkansas. Its southern regional headquarters is located in Little Rock, Arkansas.

The Analysis addresses issues such as:

• Identification of best practices for quantifying the benefits of large-scale transmission
• Discussion of MISO’s long range transmission process
• Methodologies used to evaluate transmission benefits in what is described as a “first-of-its-kind” study
• Recommendations on areas that can be improved/replicated by other planning entities and the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission

MISO had approved 18 new transmission lines. This is characterized as the largest transmission expansion to facilitate low-cost clean energy in the United States history.

The referenced transmission lines were estimated to enable approximately 56 gigawatts of new renewables. The Analysis states that this was based on:

. . . scenario modeling of state and utility emissions reduction goals that showed carbon emissions falling by more than 60% in 2040 from 2005 levels.

The need to measure potential benefits of transmission expansion to achieve “regulatory approval and stakeholder support” is discussed. However, the Analysis notes that the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission does not have standards that address the types of benefits or how they may be measured. As a result, MISO is stated to have developed a set of benefits and methods that it argued would flow from the transmission expansion.

The Analysis components include:

• MISO Long Range Transmission Plan (“LRTP”) Benefits and their Quantification
• Comparison to Best Practice Benefits Assessments
• General Assessment of LRTP Benefits Assessment
• Benefits Incidence Analysis
• Implications

A copy of the Analysis can be downloaded here.