The Midcontinent Independent System Operator’s most recent generator interconnection queue’s cumulative results highlight that renewable generation and storage continue to dominate new applications in the 15-state region, MISO reported on April 23.
The results represent the 2023 application cycle, which was opened in March 2024 to allow for the implementation of new tariff changes to provide faster results and reduce the number of project withdrawals, it said.
Preliminary results include 600 applications representing approximately 123 gigawatts of new generation across the MISO footprint -- 115 GW (or 93 percent) of which are wind, solar, storage or hybrid resources. If all the projects submitted this year are accepted as valid applications, the MISO queue would increase to 348 GW. MISO’s all-time system peak load is 127 GW.
While still significantly higher than historical averages, the 2023 results are markedly lower than 2022, which saw the cycle balloon to more than 900 projects and 171 GW, the grid operator said.
That prompted MISO to submit tariff filings to the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission to improve the quality and timeliness of the project approval process, it noted.
Solar projects continue to represent the single-highest category this year with 50 GW followed by storage projects at 29 GW and wind projects at 19 GW. Hybrid projects totaled about 17 GW.
Recent changes proposed by MISO and approved by FERC increase financial commitments and penalties and require interconnection customers to provide greater evidence of site control for projects. This is expected to result in higher quality and more viable projects entering the queue.
