Midcontinent Independent System Operator (MISO)

11May

The Transition to Crisis

The grid reliability crisis continues to deepen and spread. Warnings about capacity shortfalls and blackouts are so frequent and ubiquitous they are as regular as a utility bill. Just this week, The Wall Street Journal found that, “from California to Texas to Indiana, electric-grid operators are warning that power-generating capacity is struggling to keep up with […]
27Apr

The Grid Reliability Crisis Spreads to the Midwest

Just a few months ago, the North American Electricity Reliability Corporation (NERC) warned that capacity retirements and the rapid remaking of the grid will pose tremendous challenges to reliability over the next decade. It was a warning coming on the heels of the grid catastrophe in Texas and startling blackouts in California that some tried […]
23Mar

Dismantling Grid Reliability One Rulemaking at a Time

When Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) administrator Michael Regan recently boasted that he doesn’t have to rely on any one policy or rulemaking to achieve his agenda, he turned more than a few heads. He signaled his intent to race forward on a zealous and wide-ranging regulatory program regardless of unsettled questions about EPA’s authority to […]
23Feb

The Reliability Crisis Reaches a New Gear

A new consensus is building that electricity grid reliability problems are in fact very real and very serious. That may not be news to anyone who has been paying attention. There have been countless warnings that something is very wrong but, for years, many of the warnings and some of the loudest voices making them […]
08Sep

Don’t Jeopardize the Affordability Underpinned by Dispatchable Fuel Diversity

Just a few weeks ago, industry observers declared the end of the era of cheap natural gas. With U.S. natural gas prices soaring past the $4/MMBtu mark and now sitting above $4.60—nearly double what they were this time last year – that call seems increasingly prescient. Not since 2014 have prices been at this level […]
25Aug

Strong Majority of Americans Want a Plan to Preserve Grid Reliability

In the wake of headline-grabbing blackouts in California and Texas and all-too-regular electricity conservation warnings in states across the country, seventy-two percent of Americans are now concerned that the speed of the transition to variable sources of power is coming at the cost of grid reliability, according to new polling from Morning Consult. These concerns […]
18Aug

With Natural Gas Prices Soaring, Fuel Diversity Matters More than Ever

The era of cheap natural gas is officially over. According to Bloomberg, a decade of low natural gas prices – driven by surging production from the U.S., Australia and other nations – has finally been overtaken by demand from a recovering global economy. New supply, and the appetite of industry to provide it, isn’t keeping […]
24Mar

When Dispatchable Fuel Diversity Goes, Affordability Does Too

Coal power proved invaluable across the Midwest this February in keeping the lights on and homes warm during the deep freeze. But coal is not just a reliability backstop. As we’re now seeing, it’s also a critical piece of a balanced generation portfolio that holds down wholesale electricity prices. On the Southwest Power Pool (SPP) […]
17Mar

The Existing Coal Fleet Is the Bridge We Need

With the energy transition underway, learning from the Texas grid crisis and building a path towards increased reliability is more urgent than ever. Additional variable power will be coming to grids across the country. At what pace and scale remains to be seen but ensuring reliability in the years ahead is shaping up to be […]
03Mar

Dispatchable Fuel Diversity is Invaluable 

Does fuel diversity matter? Or, to put a finer point on it, does dispatchable fuel diversity matter? If February taught us anything, the answer is a resounding yes. Along with the Texas grid disaster, there were two neighboring grids pushed to the brink by the same unrelenting cold but both fared much better. The Southwest […]