Midcontinent Independent System Operator (MISO)

14May

Another Summer of Potential Power Shortfalls

Scorching heat could threaten the nation’s energy supply this summer, with demand eclipsing supply and potentially causing shortfalls and power outages throughout large swaths of the United States, the North American Electric Reliability Corp. (NERC) warned today in its 2025 Summer Reliability Assessment. NERC underscored that the nation’s grid reliability – facing the twin challenges […]
07May

Listen to the Capacity Markets

For years, despite ever louder warnings of a rapidly approaching electricity supply shortfall, electricity markets weren’t reflecting impending scarcity. No longer. In both the PJM and Midcontinent Independent System Operator (MISO) capacity markets, prices have exploded—an unmistakable signal to bring more capacity to the market and keep existing resources operating. Last year, capacity payments to […]
30Apr

It’s Good to Have a Reliability Backstop

With Spain, Portugal and parts of France still reeling from a stunning blackout, grid reliability is once again top of mind. While it remains to be seen what caused the grid failure, the complexities of moving away from dispatchable power and towards heavy reliance on intermittent energy are understandably in the spotlight. Regardless of what […]
02Apr

Grid Operators Tell Congress They Face a “Generational Challenge”

Last week, a congressional hearing, titled “Keeping the Lights On: Examining the State of Regional Grid Reliability,” brought together executives from the seven U.S. wholesale power markets that manage the supply and flow electricity in two-thirds of the country. Their message to all listening was crystal clear: power shortfalls and soaring prices for consumers are […]
30Dec

2024 in Review

Happy almost new year! Before we turn the page on 2024, it’s worth looking back on the stories and major developments that shaped – even reshaped – the energy landscape over the past 12 months. Years of warnings about rapidly eroding grid reliability collided with the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA’s) regulatory agenda and the […]
18Dec

NERC’s Christmas Present: Majority of the Nation Faces Blackout Risks

This should be the nail in the coffin of the Biden administration’s unworkable and downright dangerous regulatory policy undermining the nation’s power supply. According to new analysis from the North American Electric Reliability Corp. (NERC), more than half of the nation faces blackout risks over the next decade due to capacity shortfalls. While these findings […]
02Oct

PJM Can’t Get New Capacity Online

At the precise moment power demand is exploding, PJM, the operator of the nation’s largest grid, is struggling to get new capacity online. In fact, the problem is doubly difficult. At the exact time PJM desperately needs new capacity additions to surge, they’re stalled, and the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) is making matters worse […]
18Sep

Grid Operators Tell the Court: EPA’s Rule is a Dire Threat to Reliability

The nation’s grid operators warned the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) that the then proposed so-called Clean Power Plan 2.0 was a direct and alarming threat to grid reliability. Those concerns were shrugged off as EPA pushed forward and finalized an unworkable and unlawful rule. Now, the grid operators are getting involved in the legal […]
04Sep

Dispatchable Power Remains Irreplaceable

On August 26, amidst broiling heat across the Midwest, the Midcontinent Independent System Operator (MISO) issued a maximum generation event with power demand soaring to 122 gigawatts (GW). MISO – with service territory stretching from Louisiana up through Minnesota – needed every megawatt of power it could generate and then some. MISO even needed to […]
10Jul

MISO Warns it’s Going to be Woefully Short of Power

Across the country, one grid operator after another is sounding the alarm over soaring power demand, an inability to meet it and the threat posed by early retirements of essential coal capacity. PJM Interconnection, the Southwest Power Pool (SPP), the Electric Reliability Council of Texas and now the Midcontinent Independent System Operator (MISO) have all […]