CARMEL, Ind. — Tomorrow, MISO will update member utilities and stakeholders on its seasonal readiness plans for winter. The workshop will focus on the risks associated with the winter season and highlight opportunities to reduce operational challenges.
“Our goal is to provide stakeholders with a preview of what we expect this winter from an operating perspective,” said Jessica Lucas, executive director – system operations at MISO. “Based on our forecast, we expect to have enough generation available to maintain reliability across our region under normal grid conditions.”
One of the key challenges heading into winter is the potential for high risk, low probability events – such as extreme cold weather, intense winter storms and/or fuel supply issues – that could impact available power and create challenges for MISO and local utilities.
“Operating the power system is extremely complex, and adverse weather conditions can test the resiliency of the electric grid,” added Lucas. “We have a responsibility to ensure 42 million customers have reliable power, which is why we need to work collaboratively with our partner utilities as we head into winter.”
MISO is predicting winter demand will top 102 GW with 113 GW of supply available under normal grid conditions. The all-time winter record for power demand was 109 GW on Jan. 6, 2017.
“The system is evolving and will continue to evolve toward a more complex, less predictable future for the region,” said Anna Foglesong, director – strategy and policy coordination. “We continue to work with our stakeholders to address the Reliability Imperative and focus on the changes needed in planning, markets, operations and systems as the system continues to evolve.”
At the workshop, MISO will provide updates on generation and transmission assessments as well as maintenance margins related to outage coordination. The team will also share critical information from the annual Generation Winterization Survey, Weekly Fuel Consumables Data Requests and the meteorological assessment. Industry experts will also provide insight related to fuel and the supply chain.
The complete Winter Readiness Workshop agenda and presentation materials are available on the MISO website.