Midcontinent Independent System Operator (MISO)

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 […]
27Jun

A Scorching Reminder of the Coal Fleet’s Importance

Searing summer heat has blanketed much of the country and once again coal power is playing an essential role in meeting soaring demand. But this coal capacity – the very power plants working overtime to keep the lights on and air conditioners running – comes from the same plants the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) […]
01May

The Biden-EPA’s Alternate Reality

While the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) continues to brush aside deep alarm over the grid reliability impacts of its new blitz of power plant rules, evidence is rapidly mounting that the nation’s supply of electricity is already in deep, deep trouble. In the Midcontinent Independent System Operator (MISO) market, which covers much of the […]
08Feb

The Country Needs Coal Too Mr. President

Call it an admission of pragmatism. While talking to the nation’s energy future last night during the State of the Union address, President Biden went off script and admitted that “we’re still going to need oil and gas for a while.” It was a statement of fact even if it made climate hawks grimace. What […]