Grid Horizon
Developers are facing bigger challenges at every decision point: new study methods, changing assumptions, and unprecedented queue volume. This month, we share insights from Nira’s MISO 2022 Phase 1 Report, where our team helped customers adapt in real time and avoid costly pitfalls. We’re also introducing expanded product features designed to give developers, large loads, and planners more confidence in their siting and study decisions.
Featured Report: Nira’s MISO 2022 Report & Looking Ahead
Over the last two years, Nira has supported customers across 12+ MISO phases; consistently matching MISO’s results and giving developers confidence in our study methodology. Our forecasts have historically aligned within three percentage points of final outcomes, enabling customers to make timely, high-impact siting and withdrawal decisions.
The 2022 Phase 1 decision point introduced new complexity with MISO’s first use of the SUGAR solver. Results were produced with both SUGAR and TARA, and developers had to contend with multiple iterations of draft postings released with varying levels of detail. This created industry-wide uncertainty and made it difficult to understand which results were authoritative. Nira helped customers make sense of each posting — breaking down what was available, clarifying differences between iterations, and validating how SUGAR was being implemented in MISO’s study process.
In this environment, customers turned to Nira for two reasons: our aligned methodology for Phases 2 and 3, which are confirmed to use TARA, and the expertise of our 14+ Transmission Planning specialists who guided them through unprecedented changes. With this support, we enhanced the quality of results by identifying and addressing issues that often arise from manual processing. In doing so, Nira helped customers avoid exposure to potential misallocations that could have amounted to billions of dollars across hundreds of projects. This report highlights case examples where these issues were surfaced and corrected — ultimately giving customers greater confidence in their withdrawal, downsize, or investment decisions.
The 2022 Phase 1 cycle was unprecedented, but Nira’s team was able to adapt in real time, delivering live updates, refining scenarios, and supporting customers through each change. Looking ahead, we’ve reflected on these lessons and are making improvements, including new internal workflows that further strengthen our accuracy and error detection. Our goal remains clear: to equip developers with the most reliable, actionable insight possible for every decision point ahead.
The full report highlights case examples where these issues were surfaced and corrected — ultimately giving developers greater confidence in their withdrawal, downsize, or investment decisions.
New Product Capabilities
Custom Scopes
We’ve added a new feature to Nira’s Prospecting platform: Custom Scopes. This capability lets transmission engineers define their own assumptions, including load changes, generation changes, and network upgrades, to generate a custom prospecting map. With this feature, your development teams can prospect using assumptions tailored to your company, giving you a sharper edge in site selection.
Supporting Large Load Interconnection with Localized Studies
Interconnecting large loads like data centers comes with unique challenges: queue data isn’t public, project plans shift rapidly, and it’s hard to know which projects will actually materialize.
Nira’s new Large Load tools address these challenges by letting you run localized studies. Nira’s localized studies leverage existing system information and allow you to model multiple large load projects together, for example, siting several data centers at once, and evaluate their combined impact on the grid.
These capabilities give siting teams a clearer picture of real capacity, helping them make faster, more confident interconnection decisions.
NYISO In-Queue Phase 2 Preview Release
We’re excited to announce that Nira has officially launched In-Queue results for NYISO’s Transition Cluster (Cluster 24).
With this release, developers gain access to a Phase 2 Preview through the Byway Deliverability Results Preview, offering early visibility into potential deliverability upgrades that may affect projects. This helps teams prepare before the official decision period begins.
We will also be enabling Dropoff Scenario Analysis, which allows you to test how different attrition scenarios could affect your deliverability results. Together, these capabilities give you the insights needed to make more confident and timely choices during this critical stage of NYISO’s process.
Contact Nira Today.
Whether you’re siting large loads, prospecting with custom assumptions, or preparing for NYISO deliverability, Nira can help you move faster with confidence. Share a few details with us below, and we’ll connect you with the right tools for your team.
