This case study is drawn from a joint presentation by Nira Energy and Doral at ESIG's i2X STITCH Meeting 4: Automation and Data Harmonization (August 18, 2026). The i2X STITCH initiative — facilitated by Berkeley Lab in collaboration with ESIG and Elevate Energy Consulting as part of the DOE's Interconnection Innovation e-Xchange — brings together industry stakeholders to explore interconnection study practices across U.S. regions and identify opportunities for harmonization.

When your project is too big for the grid to absorb cheaply, do you cancel it — or resize it?

That's the question Doral faced with a project in MISO, and it's a scenario Shawn Welch (VP, Interconnection & Transmission) described as fundamentally different from an easy yes/no decision: a project with real growth potential, caught in a queue where other developers' choices were still shaking out around it.

The Problem

Doral had three project phases totaling more than 400 MW each moving through MISO's Decision Point 2 window. NRIS (Network Resource Interconnection Service) was the culprit — study results identified upgrade costs of close to $200 million, threatening to make the project uneconomical as originally scoped.

The Automation

Rather than accept the project as sized, Doral's team used Nira's In-Queue tool to evaluate the balance between project size, deliverability, and cost exposure. Because NRIS capacity can be downsized during Phase 1 and Phase 2 (by up to 100%), the team modeled combinations to find the inflection point — the project size that still qualified for capacity payments and grid deliverability while minimizing upgrade cost exposure.

The analysis pointed to downsizing NRIS by roughly 50%, while keeping ERIS (Energy Resource Interconnection Service) at 100%. That decision saved Doral over $100 million in upgrade costs during the Decision Point 2 window — a figure that grew to over $160 million in total savings once the project reached its final GIA and negotiations concluded.

The Result

The project advanced with 100% ERIS and 50% NRIS. The GIA was executed, and offtake was secured.