MISO official tells Minnesota committee transmission upgrades, data‑center demand and interconnection backlogs are top reliability challenges

Brian Tullow, MISO’s executive director for external affairs in the North Region, told the Minnesota House Committee on Energy Finance and Policy that the Midcontinent Independent System Operator is focused on maintaining reliability and affordability as the grid adds variable renewable generation and new large, continuous loads such as data centers.

Tullow described MISO’s role as an independent, not‑for‑profit regional transmission organization that dispatches generation based on short‑run marginal cost and manages a wholesale market that resets every five minutes. He emphasized that MISO does not own generation or distribution assets; member utilities retain ownership and must still complete state permitting and siting for transmission projects assigned to them after MISO’s regional planning approvals.

Key points Tullow presented:

- MISO’s footprint covers roughly 15–20% of U.S. load and includes multiple states; it recorded a new wind output record of about 10.5 gigawatts during a recent cold, clear day. -…