A Peek inside MISO November 17, 2011

This starts out as a run of the mill, generic, good-morning-america tour of a Minnesota wind farm, but the cool part is about 3 minutes in. A rare, brief, look at the heart and brain of the world’s biggest machine, the US power grid.

MISO is the Midwest Independent System Operator, where the pedal meets the metal for deciding which electrons get bought, sold, and moved, and to where. There are regional hubs like this in other parts of the country, that operate in similar manner, and this is ground zero for the deployment of the smart, distributed grid that will be built with renewables in mind, rather than piggybacked on top of a creaking system.

When climate deniers tell you that we can’t deal with carbon because it will “cost trillions of dollars”, they are simply demonstrating ignorance. The US MUST and WILL spend trillions of dollars to upgrade its grid in the coming decades, because the current one is inadequate for the coming revolution. If we wish to remain competitive in the world, if we wish to move out of the 19th century and catch up with a world that is increasingly deploying 21st century technologies, massive expenditures are not optional.