The Midcontinent Independent System Operator (MISO) reported last week that it helped customers save between $2.2 billion and $3.1 billion in 2014 through improved grid reliability and power generation efficiencies. Qualitatively, MISO says this results from the price signals, planning coordination, and “seams management” that it provides. MISO estimates that, since first measuring its Value Proposition in 2007, it has saved customers a total of between $10.1 billion and 13.7 billion.
According to MISO’s 2014 Value Proposition Presentation, between $1.2 billion and $1.8 billion of the benefits in 2014 can be attributed to “footprint diversity” – shifting from a localized generation system to more efficient, regional system. The Operator believes its efforts helped reduce the need for regional generators to invest in an additional 9.3-11.2 GW of generation capacity. Its energy dispatch, wind integration, and generator availability improvements each provided between $270 million and $340 million in benefits last year, according to data in the presentation (see chart).
