The grid’s challenges are your challenges.
We all want to decarbonize the grid and many believe that the problem rests solely with the grid and associated utilities and we can just sit back and wait. The issue is the grid’s problems are your problems. The energy transition is going to be a painful and bumpy ride for everyone.
Some quotes from the 2024 MISO Reliability Imperative Report report help to illuminate the issues.
“We have to face some hard realities. There are immediate and serious challenges to the reliability of our region’s electric grid, and the entire industry…”
“…the transition that is underway to get to a decarbonized end state is posing material, adverse challenges to electric reliability.”
“A key risk is that many existing “dispatchable” resources that can be turned on and off and adjusted as needed are being replaced with weather-dependent resources such as wind and solar that have materially different characteristics and capabilities. While wind and solar produce needed clean energy, they lack certain key reliability attributes that are needed to keep the grid reliable every hour of the year. Although several emerging technologies may someday change that calculus, they are not yet proven at grid scale. Meanwhile, efforts to build new dispatchable resources face headwinds from government regulations and policies, as well as prevailing investment criteria for financing new energy projects. Until new technologies become viable, we will continue to need dispatchable resources for reliability purposes.”
Here’s the scariest of the findings:
“MISO modeling indicates that a reduction of that magnitude could result in load interruptions of three to four hours in length for 13-26 days per year when energy output from wind and solar resources is reduced or unavailable. Such interruptions would most likely occur after sunset on hot summer days with low wind output and on cold winter days before sunrise and after sunset.”
Can your business afford to be shut down by lack of power, 26 times a year?
Exergy Energy is a Concierge Utility® that helps companies protect, manage and prosper through the energy transition with no upfront CAPEX. Our backup power as a service can keep your organization running when the grid is down. To learn more, please visit us at https://exergyenergy.com.
If you would like to read the MISO 2023 Reliability Imperative Report you can reach it here:
https://www.misoenergy.org/meet-miso/MISO_Strategy/reliability-imperative/