What is the timeline for the 30 MW solar farm?
MPW is actively pursuing high-volume, long-term energy commitments to help make development of a utility-scale solar project a reality. With sufficient MPW customer participation, a solar farm could be in service as early as 2023. Due to the scale of this project, timing is subject to change. Activity on this project started in early 2021. MPW completed and published a Request for Proposals (RFP) in March 2021 and a pre-bid conference was held in April 2021 to review the RFP with developers. In May, twenty-one development firms responded to the RFP with 144 proposal options. Proposals were reviewed by MPW Staff and industry consultants, with five developers providing presentations of their full proposals to the selection team during the first week July 2021. PPA negotiations are expected to begin in August, with a signed agreement anticipated by the end of 2021.This project is expected to interconnect to MPW’s transmission system at 69,000 volts. To do this, MPW is obligated to register and apply for the upcoming Midcontinent Independent System Operator (MISO)’s Definitive Planning Phase (DPP) 2021 planning cycle. At the June 2021 Board meeting, the Board of Trustees approved a project to cover the application fee, study deposits, and milestone capacity payments for this MISO DPP study. MISO’s DPP study process determines project impact and costs to the transmission system. Any improvement costs identified by MISO are the responsibility of MPW and could impact this project’s future.
