Speaker: James Okullo, Brandon Heath, and Armando Figueroa, Regulatory/Policy Group at Mid-Continent Independent System Operator (MISO)
Title: MISO’s Renewable Integration Impact Assessment
Abstract: The primary purpose of the Renewable Integration Impact Assessment (RIIA) is to methodically find system integration inflection points driven by increasing levels of renewable generation. Industry studies have shown that the complexity for renewable integration escalates non-linearly with increasing penetrations of renewables. Over certain ranges of renewable penetration, complexity is constant when spare capacity and flexibility exist, but at specific penetration levels when they are depleted, complexity rises dramatically. These are system inflection points, where the underlying infrastructure and/or system operations need to be modified to reliably achieve the next tranche of renewable deployment. This assessment aims to find those inflection points, and examine potential solutions to mitigate them. In this seminar, we will discuss the major findings of RIIA up to this date, including the metrics adopted for identifying system inflection points.