INDIANAPOLIS — With more extreme heat days ahead, many are probably wondering how the power grid will handle the increased demand for cooling.
"We're the regional grid operator for 15 states from Minnesota down to Louisiana, and you can basically think of us as the air traffic controller of the power system," Mike Deising, a spokesperson for MISO, said.
It's the Midcontinent Independent System Operator, or "MISO."
"Our job is to move power from where it's needed, where it's generated, to where it's needed in real time, every minute. Every day, we work very closely with the local utilities that people are probably more familiar with. So here are companies like AES or Duke. So, when we see heat like this coming, this is when all of us are always in constant coordination and collaboration," Deising said.
Higher temperatures mean higher demand on the electricity system. Diesing said right now the grid is stable, and they are closely monitoring these conditions.
"Is there enough supply to meet demand in real time? And right now, there is. The grid is stable. We have enough capacity, and when we do get into these situations, we do have emergency capacity that we can use, and we can deploy when needed," Deising said.
"We interact with them, and they have not told us that we are in conservative power," Mallory Duncan with AES said.
Duncan echoes Mike, saying we are not in conservation and should be in good shape. However, if we have to go into conservation operations.
"That just means that anything that is not important to get energy onto the grid. We stop," Duncan said.
As things are about to heat up, Duncan urges Hoosiers to keep their thermostats on.
"The recommendation is 78 degrees for this kind of high heat situations, and I know that sounds warm, but also like when you come home from work when you're setting that thermostat back to your comfortable temperature," Duncan said.
