Have you had the chance to read MISO’s updated Reliability Imperative (RI) report? Anyone who wants to understand the challenges facing today's electric grid should read it. If you are unfamiliar with the “Reliability Imperative,” it is the term we use to describe the shared responsibility of MISO, its members, and states to address the urgent and complex challenges impacting our grid.
A big part of the RI report focuses on the need for urgent action. Let’s talk about that.
The U.S. power grid has long been one of the most reliable in the world. But now, multiple challenges are creating a hyper-complex risk environment. One challenge is the looming mismatch between the speed of new generation coming online and the retirement of existing generation. This mismatch must be addressed today if we want to ensure power flows 24/7/365 long after tomorrow.
The Reliability Imperative report defines several more factors impacting our region. Together, they are contributing to a rapid change in our "reliability risk” profile. These factors amplify the call to urgent action:
- Extreme weather events have become more frequent and severe, impacting both generation and transmission and exacerbating other reliability risks.
- Supply chain and permitting issues are delaying many new generation projects. These issues are beyond the control of electricity providers, states, and MISO.
- Electricity demand is rising. This is due to a manufacturing comeback and more sales of electric vehicles.
- Investor preferences for financing new energy projects are creating economic headwinds to build new dispatchable generation resources.
- Fuel assurance issues with natural gas pipelines and other energy infrastructure can hamper consistent deliveries of fuel to reliability-critical generators.
New technologies may offer solutions to some of these challenges. For example, long-duration batteries, small reactors, and hydrogen systems. However, they are not yet viable at grid scale. And we can’t afford to wait for them.
We have made great progress over the past four years finding and implementing solutions to RI challenges. This is thanks to our partnerships with our members, stakeholders, and MISO states. But the risks we face are accelerating.
From MISO’s perspective, we must move faster. And with more coordination. There is an urgent need for action. Our region’s 45 million people are counting on us to get it right.