Content area
Full Text
The historic cold snap in early January presented certain challenges for the Midwest power grid, including record-high winter demand and a large amount of forced outages, some of which were due to fuel disruptions, according to a preliminary report from the Midcontinent Independent System Operator Inc.
The Jan. 10 report detailed a new all-time winter peak load set Jan. 6 at 109,307 MW, about 9% higher than MISO's prior winter peak for the current MISO membership of 99,855 MW, despite travel restrictions and despite most schools, businesses and institutions being closed for multiple days. The North and Central regions of MISO were particularly hard hit, the report said.
"While this level of demand wasn't met without challenges, MISO was able to do so without directing any demand reductions -- including demand response and interruptible load -- although members are able to engage in voluntary load reduction activities, which some did at various times during this period," the report said.
Outages also presented challenges. According to...