LANSING – A spokesperson for the Midcontinent Independent System Operator said Thursday said it is too early to say if the group would study electric generation expansion in northern Michigan as Gov. Rick Snyder has requested.
Snyder sent a letter to the organization that oversees electric transmission in 15 states and Manitoba urging the company to look at expanding generation and transmission in both the Upper Peninsula and Lower Peninsula. That area has some of the highest electric costs, Snyder said.
Jay Hermacinski, spokesperson for MISO, said the organization received two requests from Michigan – the one from Snyder and a second a week ago from the Michigan Agency for Energy asking for an assessment on declining generation resources available in Michigan during an emergency – and was beginning the process of reviewing those requests.
So it is too early to say, Hermacinski said, if MISO will conduct the studies requested.
Part of the organization’s job is to do transmission planning, so “we are always looking at what the grid will be like in five, 10, 15 years,” so a request like that of Snyder’s would not be surprising, he said.
Hermacinski said he did not have a time line on when MISO may make a decision on conducting the study.
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