Midwest ISO Senior Manager of Shift Operations Rob Benbow (left) speaks with CEO Graham Edwards (center) and President and COO John Bear (right).

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For Midwest Independent Transmission System Operator (Midwest ISO) Inc., the name of the game is the reliable and continuous support of power. Based in Carmel, Ind., the organization manages and provides access to 93,600 miles of interconnected power lines in 15 U.S. states and the province of Manitoba, Canada.

Midwest ISO was established on a voluntary basis by 10 transmission-owning members in 1996 and became the nation’s first regional transmission organization five years later. Today, the organization says it manages one of the world’s largest energy markets and completes almost $3 billion in energy transactions monthly.

Midwest ISO enables the delivery of “the lowest-cost power to the best regional locations,” President and COO John Bear says. Its members include wholesale power utilities in the Midwest, such as vertically integrated utilities, independent power producers and transmission owners.

An important factor in Midwest ISO’s success, Bear notes, is its ability to combine state-of-the-art technology with the capabilities of its well trained staff of 728 employees. To assemble its team, “We’ve gone out and found very experienced folks from the industry,” he says.

CEO Graham Edwards adds that he is proud of its associates. “All areas [of our operations] have performed admirably,” he states. “We have some of the best control room operators in North America.”

To meet its customers’ needs in a timely manner, Midwest ISO’s team explores how it can continue to improve its operations, Edwards says. “Everybody focuses in on that day in and day out,” he states. “We have become a leader in the industry.”

“Since it began operations in 2001, the Midwest ISO has faced its share of challenges and successes,” the organization says.

“Through it all, the staff and members of the Midwest ISO continue to focus on identifying ways to improve reliability and increase efficiency in the delivery of electric energy in the Midwest.”

Bringing Benefits
“Almost a decade after initial formation discussions began, Midwest ISO services provide annual benefits of between $555 million and $850 million,” the organization says. “These benefits derive from improved reliability, increased efficiencies in the use of generation resources and improved regional planning.

“During the next 10 years, this savings is expected to provide net benefits to the region of between $4.6 billion and $6.9 billion,” Midwest ISO says, noting that its benefit areas include improved reliability.

“Since the establishment of the Midwest ISO, the use of the region’s electric system has undergone significant change because infrastructure built primarily for local use is operated on a regional basis,” it says. “Despite this increased pressure on the grid, analysis of disturbance data available from the North American Reliability Corp. (NERC) shows that regional transmission organizations reduce the size, duration and number of outages in their footprints.

“In the Midwest ISO, this results in annual benefits between $230 million and $340 million,” it states.

Another benefit area is dispatch of energy, Midwest ISO says. “Through the Day-Ahead and Real-Time Energy Markets, the Midwest ISO is able to optimize the dispatch of energy throughout the region, ensuring that energy needs are met by the most cost effective, deliverable generation available in the region,” it says. “This results in annual benefits between $200 million and $250 million.”

An additional area is contingency reserves, Midwest ISO says. “Through the cooperation of its stakeholders, the Midwest ISO has been able to coordinate a generation reserve sharing group that significantly reduces the contingency reserve requirements for the region, while maintaining reliability,” it states.

“This reduction in the requirement allows generation that would have been held to meet prior contingency reserve requirements to meet regional energy requirements,” Midwest ISO says. “This results in annual benefits of $135 million to $145 million.”

A fourth benefit area is generation investment deferral. “The shift from localized use of the electrical system and regional use allows more efficient and effective use of the generation assets, and allows for a reduction in the planning reserve margins for the region,” Midwest ISO states.

“Even a conservative estimate of a 1 percent to 1.25 percent drop in the planning reserve requirement results in annual benefits of between $135 million to $150 million.”

Balancing Out
This April, Midwest ISO announced that NERC had certified the organization as a joint registered balancing authority. According to Midwest ISO, the certification was an important step for the launch of its Midwest ISO Ancillary Services Market.

Ancillary Services will provide a balancing service that meets changes in electrical demand, Bear says. This service would create greater efficiency in the use of power. He compares it to the experience one would have while using an automobile’s cruise control.

If a driver were to set their cruise control at 55 miles an hour and travel up a hill, “Your speed would drop if your engine didn’t increase to keep you at a constant speed,” he says. “That’s what Ancillary Services does; it provides that balancing function to make sure [there is] a constant level of power delivered as efficiently as possible.”

Ancillary Services will “compensate generators differently to [provide those] balancing services,” Bear says, noting that the program will be implemented in September. “We anticipate, on an annual basis, that [it] will generate $115 to $200 million in efficiency savings a year.”