The Midcontinent Independent System Operator’s (MISO) board has approved a $21.9 billion long-range transmission plan.
The Long Range Transmission Planning Tranche 2.1 will include the construction of a 765kV transmission backbone across MISO’s Midwest coverage area.
The new transmission lines will span 1,800 miles and include some that will connect directly to PJM Interconnection’s 765kV system in Illinois, Indiana, and Ohio. They are expected to support power flows across the Midwest, alleviate the impact of extreme weather on the grid, relieve congestion, and resolve local constraints.
MISO claims the projects will produce $23 billion to $72 billion in net benefits over 20 years through avoided capacity costs, improved reliability, and decarbonization.
“The main thing we want is getting these transmission projects in service … Our biggest concern is the longer that uncertainty is out there, the longer it potentially prevents projects from getting in service,” said Jeremiah Doner, director of cost allocation and competitive transmission at MISO.
If state regulators approve the plan, MISO anticipates that the projects will come online from 2032 through 2034.
MISO expects that the new transmission infrastructure will facilitate the deployment of large load additions and attract new data center customers to the region. For example, Minnesota and North Dakota are expected to see an additional 4GW of demand from data centers by 2044.
MISO pinpoints data centers, new domestic industries, and green hydrogen as the primary drivers of anticipated load growth. Data centers are expected to drive most of the load growth in the north, with new domestic industry development driving growth in the south.
As a result, MISO expects the expansion of data centers fueled by AI and cloud-based applications will raise its energy demand by 149-241TWh by 2044.
Despite the approval, MISO currently has a considerable interconnection queue. Last week, the utility identified it in a presentation as a significant constraint to growth. Subsequently, it has prioritized forming a fast-track interconnection review process for generating projects needed to ensure resource adequacy.
MISO will file an “expedited resource adequacy study” process by Feb 28, 2025, for approval by the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission and plans to have the new rules take effect by June 1, 2025.
In November, MISO president and chief operating officer Clair Moeller contended that data centers could begin to pay for gas-fired generation to power its facilities in the short term as a bridging mechanism to low-carbon energy sources. Moeller argued that due to rapid buildouts of data center operators, utilities should explore every avenue possible to meet their power needs.
MISO operates the electric transmission system in portions of 15 Midwest and South states, including Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, and parts of Texas, plus the Canadian province of Manitoba.
