The United State Energy Association recently hosted their August Virtual Press Briefing focused on the existential threat that extreme weather events pose to the electric grid. Todd Hillman, MISO’s senior vice president and chief customer officer, joined an esteemed panel of industry experts to discuss the impact of more frequent extreme weather events in conjunction with other complex issues that create reliability challenges to the electric grid.
While much of the conversation focused on the challenges posed by extreme weather, panelists shared that it is part of a much larger issue: the hyper-complex risk environment that the electric grid now faces. Extreme weather is a significant piece, but it exists within a broader context of interconnected threats that together pose a serious challenge to grid resilience and reliability.
Other risk factors include:
- Fleet change
- Regulations, policies and investment criteria
- Fuel assurance
- Load additions
- Incremental load growth
- Supply chain and permitting issues
Find an overview of each of these risk factors in the Executive Summary of MISO’s latest Reliability Imperative.
When asked how RTOs feel about their ability to keep the lights on considering the many complications plaguing the industry, Hillman shared, “We're guardedly realistic. We're at our reserve margin in many of our zones within MISO. The load growth that we are hearing about and seeing, both realistically and anecdotally, is going to exacerbate our already tight reserve margins. We need resources to perform. We need more resources online. We need resources that are available today to stay online as long as humanly possible. Given all those things we can see scenarios that we can continue to be reliable. We can also see scenarios where we get into very, very tight emergency conditions more often. That is also exacerbated by extreme weather.”
These complex challenges are not unique to MISO and call for increased collaboration among RTOs, their members and states. Watch the full recording of the press briefing and be sure to follow MISO Matters.