The 2024 Mid-America Regulatory Conference showcased a tug-of-war of positivity and cynicism over meeting growing demand with a fleet that should evolve faster to meet clean energy goals.

FERC authorized an exception to MISO’s interconnection rights transfer process, allowing two Xcel Energy subsidiaries to cooperate on a replacement of a coal-fired plant with a solar farm.

MISO’s 2024 Transmission Expansion Plan increased slightly in cost to $5.8 billion while the Southern Renewable Energy Association requested MISO explore an alternative to an Entergy Texas reliability project.

MISO said new queue entries must wait while it takes another swing at imposing an annual megawatt cap on its interconnection queue.

A court of appeals has toppled Wisconsin’s longstanding ban on aggregators of demand response participating in wholesale markets.

MISO said a riskier operating environment means it needs a more nuanced approach to its regulation reserve requirements.

MISO said after its experience with its first long-range transmission portfolio, it no longer wants to open simple, conductor-only projects to its competitive bidding process.

MISO’s Independent Market Monitor continues to cast doubt on the theoretical benefits estimates of the second long-range transmission projects as the RTO intends to add more projects to the already $17 billion to $23 billion portfolio.

MISO told stakeholders not to expect sweeping, greenfield projects as a result of its new transfer capability study with PJM.