One Way Missouri Could Keep Its Energy Grid Reliable

In my previous post, I discussed how the shuttering of coal energy in Missouri could create problems with energy prices and reliability. In this post, I will discuss a potential solution to the reliability problem.

What does a reliable electric grid even mean?

The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission defines grid reliability as:

"The provision of an adequate, secure, and stable flow of electricity as consumers may need it. In other words, when you flip the light switch, the lights turn on. The grid remains functional even during unanticipated but common system disturbances."

Essentially, there needs to be a sufficient and secure amount of dispatchable power plants supplying electricity to consumers. Dispatchability is an energy source's ability to be "dispatched" to the grid's consumers whenever they need it. Intermittent energy sources, like wind and solar, are not dispatchable, as they are not continuously available for consumers when they need it.

Missouri's retiring coal plants are consistent and dispatchable, and to maintain grid reliability, they should simply be replaced with similar plants-such as nuclear or natural gas.

But what about battery storage for intermittent sources?

The presence of energy storage does not make wind and solar any less intermittent. They are still intermittent, but it's possible battery storage could help alleviate this problem.

Globally, battery storage is rapidly rising, and costs are decreasing. These trends should bolster the effectiveness of renewables-but the sheer amount of energy the United States uses is daunting. The Mackinac Center notes that the United States is set to add 191.6 gigawatt hours of battery backup systems between 2022 and 2026. This is a ton of storage. However, in 2021, the United States used 4,116,000 gigawatt hours of electricity in 2021 alone. Per calculations from the energy analysis group Doomberg, that nets out to 24 additional minutes of battery backup storage added over that five-year period.

Additionally, the International Energy Agency noted the difficulty of providing the materials for a mass battery and renewable expansion at scale. Compared to total mineral demand in 2020, it projects a need for six times as many total minerals for a "net-zero by 2050" scenario.

What's a policy that could help boost grid reliability?

Last session, House Bill (HB) 1753 passed through the Missouri House but failed to make it to the floor in the Senate. This bill outlined that, prior to the closure of an existing power plant, there must be:

• A new "replacement" power plant secured and placed on the electric grid (which can be in another state) with an equal or greater amount of "reliable electric generation"

• "Adequate" transmission lines in place and ready to operate immediately or shortly after a plant is taken offline (depending on the interconnectedness of the plant being shut down).

The retirements of functioning power plants should not be done in haste. HB 1753 would have helped pump the brakes on an energy transition that seems to be barreling out of control. Even if you believe that renewables should be the primary energy source, there should be a highly dispatchable and reliable source backing them up.

Commissioner Mark Christie of the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) noted:

I think the United States is heading for a very catastrophic situation in terms of reliability. . . .The core of the problem is actually very simple. We are retiring dispatchable generating resources at a pace and in an amount that is far too fast and far too great, and it is threatening our ability to keep the lights on. The problem is not the addition of wind and solar and other renewable resources. The problem is the subtraction of dispatchable resources such as coal and gas. . . . A nameplate megawatt of wind or solar is simply not equal in terms of capacity value to a nameplate megawatt of coal or gas or nuclear.

Renewable construction is good-it can bring development and diversity to the generation portfolio-but dispatchability needs to be emphasized, and an intermittent source should not be our backbone. We do not need to make the transition away from coal more convoluted than it is. HB 1753 would have protected energy reliability for Missourians. This policy should be given stronger consideration in the 2025 legislative session.

Public link

Please use the above public link if you want to share this noodl on another website.