MISO survey indicates a 1.5-gigawatt electricity surplus
by July 14, 2023 10:59 am 644 views
Carmel, Ind.-based regional transmission organization Midcontinent Independent System Operator (MISO) expects a 1.5-gigawatt surplus in electric capacity over the next two years.
On Thursday (July 13), MISO and the Organization of MISO States (OMS) released a survey that shows a 1.5-gigawatt electric capacity surplus from 2024 to 2025. The 10th-annual OMS-MISO survey also highlighted the need for additional resources and other measures, including market changes, to avoid possible capacity deficits.
MISO delivers electricity to the Canadian province of Manitoba and 15 U.S. states, including a portion of Arkansas. Little Rock-based regional transmission organization Southwest Power Pool (SPP) manages the grid for the other portion of Arkansas.
“With so many moving pieces involved with the changing electricity mix, regional assessments such as this one are becoming increasingly important to fully understand how the region will maintain reliable and affordable electricity delivery to customers,” said Dan Scripps, president of the Organization of MISO States and chairman of the Michigan Public Service Commission. “The increased transparency that comes with the seasonal granularity of this survey will undoubtably prove useful to state commissions, utilities and other market participants as they look to firm up their future resource plans to provide reliable and affordable electricity.”
For the first time, the survey incorporated MISO’s new seasonal resource adequacy approach to resource planning. In May, MISO released the 2023-2024 Planning Resource Auction (PRA) that included the new seasonal approach to resource planning. The PRA indicated sufficient generation capacity to meet electricity demand for the planning year beginning June 1, 2023.
The new survey results reflected the market responses in the PRA, including delayed retirements and making additional existing capacity available to the region. However, the actions might not be repeatable, and resource accreditation continues to evolve on how the resources perform during high-risk periods.
“This collaborative survey provides important information for MISO, state regulators and our member utilities to help reliably manage the accelerating resource fleet transition,” said John Bear, CEO of MISO. “These results continue to illustrate the reliability risk we face and reinforce the need for dispatchable, long-duration resources to be maintained and brought online to manage the transition to weather-dependent, low-carbon resources.”
In May, SPP announced that it expects to have enough generating capacity to meet regional electricity demand this summer (June to September).