| The Midwest electric grid is getting a massive makeover. Regional planners have signed off on a whopping $30 billion package to upgrade the region’s power system, writes Jeffrey Tomich. The centerpiece of the plan is a $21.8 billion investment in new high-voltage, long-range power lines to carry solar and wind power to population centers. The historic investment will not only help Midwest utilities meet their climate targets, but also shore up the region's power supply at a time when record growth in energy demand is threatening widespread blackouts and power failures. Across the country, grid planners are trying to respond to an anticipated surge in demand from new data centers, manufacturing expansions, electric vehicles and green hydrogen production. The Midcontinent Independent System Operator’s new plan could also be a game-changer for withstanding more frequent and severe storms, said Joe Sullivan, a Minnesota utility regulator. “As we’ve seen in Winter Storm Uri and the polar vortex events, these big regional lines are wheeling power across a huge footprint and that is what keeps the lights on,” Sullivan told Jeff. The politics of (electric) power
Reaching a deal to transform a major section of the region’s electric grid — which will connect nine Midwestern states from the windy Upper Great Plains to Michigan to southern Indiana — was no simple feat. It began five years ago, when utility commissioners from a dozen states, red and blue, agreed the region’s energy infrastructure needed an upgrade. (While soaring energy demand from AI was not on anyone’s radar then, an increase in wind power that would need transporting was). Since then, Midwest governors have continued pushing for an update, often giving the effort “political cover” when it encountered opposition, one former utility regulator told Jeff. Most recently, three Democratic governors in the Midwest — Govs. J.B Pritzker of Illinois, Tim Walz of Minnesota and Gretchen Whitmer of Michigan — urged MISO’s board to approve the investment, citing incoming strains on the grid, such as AI data centers. Clinching the deal
MISO’s calculation of benefits was a source of contention among some, such as North Dakota utility regulators, but the projections ultimately swayed federal regulators to sign off on the plan. The estimate found that a more robust electric grid that easily moves existing wind and solar power across state lines would avoid the need to build new power generation projects — that alone represents $16.3 billion in savings. “These projects are going to serve customers in the region for over 40 years, so we’re all going to benefit from them,” said Natalie McIntire with the Natural Resources Defense Council’s Sustainable FERC Project. “We are at a turning point of sorts in the history of this industry, and today we need a rapid transformation of our grid.”
| 
