Midwest Independent Transmission System Operator (MISO) President and CEO John R. Bear highlighted numerous ways in which MISO is working to mitigate issues and changes impacting the electric industry during an address to the Midwest Governors Association yesterday in St. Paul, Minn.
"As the electric industry undergoes a myriad of changes, MISO is thankful for the opportunity to work with the Midwest Governors Association in creating a stronger Midwest through a reliable energy grid," said Bear. "We are committed to implementing solutions that ultimately benefit consumers."
MISO says one of the most important forces of change to the region is the implementation of the Mercury and Air Toxins Standard, the compliance of which will require more than 70% of the region’s coal units to retrofit or retire - approximately 242 generation units with a capacity of 47 GW, or the equivalent capacity of every electric generation unit in Minnesota, Wisconsin and Iowa combined.
In order to meet the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency compliance requirements, MISO says it is working with its asset owners to facilitate the flow of information across the Midwest.
During his address, Bear also discussed MISO’s collaboration with policymakers, regulators, asset owners and other interested parties in the past several years to better plan the region’s infrastructure and transition to the next generation of infrastructure resources.
According to MISO, one such development to add value to the efficiency and effectiveness of the industry is the operator’s network of synchrophasors, advanced devices that can reduce the risk for system outages by quickly measuring the state of the electric grid.
