News & Blog

Increasing build-out of wind and solar power is raising a lot of concern and complaints among conventional power producers. Wind and solar come to electricity markets with zero marginal costs, depressing the prices and reducing the operating times of gas and coal power plants. This is making the business case unbearable. Many power plants are…

With more than 350 power plants, 8,600 miles of high voltage transmission lines, and more than seven million electricity customers, running the six-state regional grid is a continuous balancing act. Therefore, dispatching power resources to reliably serve electricity demand is one of the most critical tasks in electric power system operations. But doing this efficiently…

For the past ten years the European discussion about wind energy has been closely connected to discussions about the necessity of additional infrastructure. Nevertheless, citizens may be positive on the renewables aspect, while, due to possible NIMBY effects, may be less positive on infrastructure. As this conflict is well-known, a lot of political action has…

We all know that our electric power system is changing, and that reliability of the grid must be carefully considered during this transition, but I’ve been surprised by recent actions by the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC). Let’s walk through this story and talk about the important implications. Starting with the electric power system, the…

I think wind and solar power plants are finally coming into their own.  What do I mean by a power plant?  I mean a plant that can accept dispatch signals from the system operator, participate in AGC, ride through system voltage and frequency disturbances, and supply the full range of ancillary services required for system…