Webinar: 168 Hours to 9 Minutes: MISO’s New Large Load Forecast Requirements

FERC’s June 2026 show cause order (Docket EL26-70) is driving new forecast obligations for large loads in MISO. Transmission customers serving a large load will owe MISO two submissions: an hourly forecast running 168 hours out and refreshed at least hourly, and a five-minute forecast that must clear MISO’s systems nine minutes before the interval it covers — both at the Commercial Pricing Node level, on a gross basis, with no netting of co-located generation. Once you are submitting, MISO stops modeling that load itself and feeds your numbers straight into commitment and dispatch, with an accuracy incentive framework still being designed. Obligations commence Sept. 1, 2027, leaving roughly a year to get ready. 

Here’s what you’ll learn:  

• What the requirements are and the dates that matter — from FERC’s show cause order through MISO’s tariff filing and the Sept. 1, 2027 compliance deadline 
• Exactly what must be submitted — hourly forecasts 168 hours out, five-minute forecasts that must clear MISO’s systems nine minutes ahead of the interval, and the validation rules that cause a submission to be rejected 
• Why forecasts are submitted per Commercial Pricing Node on a gross basis, and what that means for facilities with co-located or behind-the-meter generation 
• How MISO removes large load from its own statistical models and substitutes your submission into its mid-term and short-term forecasts, commitment and dispatch 
• Why traditional weather- and calendar-driven load forecasting does not work for a single data center, and what operational data you will need from the load customer 
• How forecast error flows into settlement outcomes, which accuracy metrics MISO has proposed, and which parts of the incentive framework remain open to stakeholder input 
• What an automated forecast-to-submission process has to do to run reliably around the clock, and a readiness checklist for the next twelve months  

Who will benefit from this webinar:  

• Load forecasting and operations teams at MISO transmission customers and load serving entities who will own the new submissions 
• Large load and data center developers interconnecting in the MISO footprint, along with the teams who will supply operational data to their serving utility 
• Settlements and market analytics employees who want to understand how forecast error shows up in deviation and make-whole charges 

Registrations are manually reviewed and approved, and you will receive confirmation usually within one business day. Registrants must register using email addresses issued by their employers. 

Registration closes at 1:55 p.m. CT Thursday, Oct. 15 — 5 minutes before the start of the webinar. 

About the presenter:  

Dwarak Varaharajan: Dwaraknaath Varadharajan is PCI’s Sr. Product Manager, Optimization & AI. Dwaraknaath brings over more than five years of expertise in the energy industry and software development, having been an integral member of PCI since May 2019. Currently serving as the Product Manager for the BatteryTrader and Forecaster products, Dwaraknaath leads initiatives to enhance our capabilities and drive strategic development of products. Dwaraknaath’s skillset encompasses proficiency in multiple programming languages, generative AI, machine learning, business intelligence, and cloud software development. Dwaraknaath holds a master of science in electrical engineering with a specialized focus on power systems and minor focus on statistics from North Carolina State University.