Accessibility menu
State Representative Paul Anderson
100 Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Blvd.
651-296-4317
For more information contact: House GOP Communications 651-296-5520
NEWS COLUMN
ENERGY OPERATION IS JAMES BOND-ESQUE
By State Rep. Paul Anderson
A group of legislators recently toured the Midwest ISO building in downtown St. Paul. It’s a rather ordinary-looking structure in a commercially zoned part of the city. About the only aspects that appeared different were the multitude of antennas and satellite dishes on top of the building, along with a chain link fence around the outside.
After going through security, we were ushered into an area to view a large room that could have been used in a James Bond movie. Four operators were sitting at consoles, and one entire wall was taken up with a huge electronic map of the central U.S. Colors on the map were constantly changing, and various other numbers around the map continually blinked, as well.
MISO stands for Midwest Independent Transmission System Operator, and with control centers in St. Paul and Carmel, Ind., it serves as the reliability coordinator for the transmission of high-voltage electricity in the Upper Midwest and a portion of central Canada. It also serves as a sort of clearinghouse for wholesale power transactions, with more than $40 billion a year traded through its market. That market consists of four tiers; of which three are the Day-Ahead Energy Market, the Real Time Energy Market, and the Financial Transmission Rights Market.
Those who have begun the process of building wind towers also deal with MISO, as it’s the agency that determines how and when a wind project can hook up to the electric grid. It can be a long and bureaucratic process, although an attempt has been made to speed up the way the system works. Those projects that are fully funded and nearly shovel-ready are now given priority by MISO.
According to figures supplied to us, when natural gas sells for around eight cents a cubic foot, wind-power generation becomes price-competitive. Right now, gas is selling for less than four cents.
Currently, coal provides around 52 percent of electric generation nameplate capacity. Natural gas is next with 24 percent, followed by nuclear generation at about 8 percent. Wind power provides 4 percent of our electricity, hydro (dams) about 3 percent, and waste-to-energy less than 1 percent.
Wind power is supplying an ever-increasing amount of electricity for the Midwest. Its nameplate capacity has increased by 68 percent from just last year. The one aspect of wind generation that makes it more difficult to manage is its intermittent nature with no guarantee of capacity during periods of peak demand. Nearly 3,600 megawatts of new capacity are scheduled to come on-line this summer, with more than half of that total being supplied by wind.
Based on figures supplied by MISO, demand for electricity in the Midwest this summer is actually forecast to decrease from last year by more than 3 percent. This decrease is primarily driven by the current economic recession and is being seen nationally, and not just here in the Midwest.
On another subject, the July economic forecast was recently released by the state, and it shows that general fund revenues for fiscal year 2009 came in $150 million less than were forecast in February. The main reason for the shortfall was a decrease in individual income tax receipts. What this does is reduce the balance carried forward into the 2010-11 biennium.
--30--
Rep. Anderson encourages constituents to contact his new office with input regarding any state legislative issue. He can be reached on the web at www.house.mn/13A and via email at rep.paul.anderson@house.mn. To contact Anderson by phone, call (651) 296-4317. Mail can be sent to Rep. Paul Anderson, 239 State Office Building, 100 Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Blvd., St. Paul, Minnesota 55155.
News Items
- Still no budget as session winds down - (Posted: May 10 2013 12:00AM)
- MUCH WORK REMAINS IN SESSION’S WANING WEEKS - (Posted: May 6 2013 12:00AM)
- Results of online survey are telling - (Posted: May 3 2013 12:00AM)
- Archived News Items
- Subscribe to RSS News Feeds
- Read more about RSS.