In the contest between tornados and solar power farms, tornados remain undefeated. From Indiana’s WSBT-22, Severe storms, suspected tornado damages solar farm, structures in Jasper County. The station reports from…
Yesterday was a big day for the biggest U.S. power auction, held by the grid operator PJM Interconnection. Prices to supply electricity between June 2026 and May 2027 exceeded last…
A beautiful mid-summer day in Minnesota. But where is the wind? 3:00 p.m., 84 degrees, low humidity and no wind in my neck of the woods, so I thought it…
This week saw a heat wave strong enough that Mark Christie, chairman of the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission, warned that “Some of our systems really came close to the edge.”…
The Midcontinent Independent Systems Operator (MISO) is at risk of running low on electricity this summer, according to the North American Electric Reliability Corporation (NERC) 2025 summer reliability assessment. This…
The Province of Ontario wages a trade war against Minnesota, but without any ammunition. The putatively Conservative premier of Ontario, Doug Ford, launched a trade war of his own against…
Is anyone paying attention? More importantly, are the correct people paying attention? As far as I can tell, our own Sarah Montalbano was the first to report locally on the…
The North American Electric Reliability Corp. (NERC) published its 10-year outlook on Tuesday, and the forecast isn’t looking good: accelerating plant retirements, escalating demand growth, and declining dispatchable resources will…
A new report by Grid Strategies anticipates that U.S. electricity demand will increase five times faster than previously estimated over the next five years. The culprit? Data centers, manufacturing, and…
The Wall Street Journal published an article last week titled “Renewables, and Good Luck, Prop Up Power Grid Through Extreme Heat.” The authors are right that ‘good luck’ is propping…
The Midcontinent Independent Systems Operator (MISO), of which Minnesota is a part, is warning of capacity shortfalls next summer. MISO’s press release suggests a potential shortfall of 2.7 GW, though…
The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) released its 2024 Summer Energy Market and Electric Reliability Assessment last week. U.S. electricity demand is “expected to increase 2.7% this summer” compared to…
Wind advocates are prone to dismissing concerns about the intermittency of their preferred generation source by claiming, without evidence, that the wind is “always blowing somewhere,” and building more transmission…
In 2022, the Midcontinent Independent Systems Operator (MISO), the regional grid operator that oversees Minnesota’s electric grid, released a report stating that $10.3 billion would be needed to build the…
The regional grid operator to which Minnesota belongs, the Midcontinent Independent Systems Operator (MISO), issued its latest Reliability Imperative report warning that the nation’s electric grid faces several immediate and serious challenges.…
American Experiment Policy Fellow Isaac Orr appeared on the Power Hungry Podcast with Robert Bryce to discuss the work he and Mitch Rolling are doing to calculate the cost of…
In many ways, 2023 feels like the eye of the hurricane threatening the reliability of the American electric grid. It was the first year since 2019 that rolling blackouts didn’t…
Last week, the North American Electric Reliability Corporation (NERC), the international regulatory authority with the mission to ensure the reliability of the electric grid, released the latest version of its…
I’ve been hesitant to attempt any predictions about potential blackouts on the grid this year because I don’t want to become a Boy Who Cried Wolf. Also, it hasn’t felt…
On August 8, four regional grid operators, Pennsylvania Jersey Maryland (PJM), the Midcontinent Independent Systems Operator (MISO), the Electric Reliability Council of Texas (ERCOT), and Southwest Power Pool (SPP) issued…
It’s been very warm in Minnesota over the last two weeks, leading families to turn up the air conditioning. One thing that hasn’t been turned up over the last 14…
On May 19, the regional electric grid to which Minnesota belongs, the Midcontinent Independent Systems Operator (MISO), announced the results of its recent capacity auction. MISO concluded that the region…
On Wednesday, May 17, the North American Electric Reliability Corporation (NERC) issued its 2023 Summer Reliability Assessment. Summarizing the report, Utility Dive noted that most of the United States will…
Last week the Biden Administration’s Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) proposed new rules on mercury that could jeopardize electric grid reliability in Minnesota and the rest of the 15-state Midcontinent Independent…