The MISO has released its Reliability Imperative, noting that the power grid faces complex challenges. The report findings underscore the importance of the low-emitting Nemadji Trail Energy Center (NTEC), which will maintain reliability while supporting increased deployment of renewable energy.

No matter what the weather, NTEC can ramp up in minutes – generating power when wind and solar need back-up. NTEC will also benefit the environment by displacing higher-emitting plants.

The full MISO Reliability Imperative report is available here. Following is an excerpt from the overview:

There are material challenges threatening the electric system reliability, MISO says in the updated version of its Reliability Imperative report. “The challenges we face are not way down the road; they are here right in front of us,” said MISO Chief Executive Officer John Bear. “We need to execute on the solutions that we’ve already developed with our stakeholders, and we need to collaborate more closely to collectively address these pressing issues.”

In addition to significant changes to the generation fleet, the electric power industry is facing an increase in extreme weather events, large load additions, electrification, supply chain issues, permitting delays and fuel assurance issues. This confluence of factors contributes to MISO’s rapidly changing reliability risk profile.

In light of the urgent and complex reliability risks, MISO is working with its members and states with a more concentrated focus on: 

• Refining generation resource plans across MISO by accelerating the addition of reliability attributes and moderating retirements to avoid undue reliability risk.
• Maintaining transition resources as reliability “insurance” until promising new technologies become viable at grid scale.
• Increasing awareness of the areas in which electricity providers, states, and MISO must coordinate and work together to reliably manage the energy transition.

About MISO:
MISO (Midcontinent Independent System Operator) is one of the nation's largest regional transmission organizations, responsible for operating the power grid across 15 U.S. states and the Canadian province of Manitoba. (Dairyland is a member of MISO.) MISO states that 42 million people depend on it to generate and transmit the right amount of electricity every minute of every day. In addition to managing the power grid within our region, MISO administers the buying and selling of electricity, and partners with members and stakeholders to plan the grid of the future.