The Energy Services team manages Big Rivers’ daily power supply, power market transactions, and resource planning.

Energy Services coordinates the company’s participation in the Midcontinent Independent System Operator (MISO) market. MISO is the regional grid operator tasked with managing the generation and transmission of high-voltage electricity across 15 U.S. states and a Canadian province. Big Rivers connection into MISO opens opportunities to one of the nation’s largest energy markets.

Energy Services works with Big Rivers’ Power Production to offer the capabilities and output of our generating units and long-term power purchase agreements into the market in a way which maximizes our margins from these assets. Second, we forecast the company’s next-day load requirements with the goal of minimizing the cost of that load. Third, we utilize physical transactions and financial tools to hedge our exposure to market prices for capacity and energy and to congestion between our resources and our load. Lastly, we represent the company within the MISO stakeholder process through committees, work groups, and task forces to ensure that our interests are represented.

Energy Services is also responsible for identifying longer-term counterparties who might benefit from the company’s low-cost generation portfolio, to the extent that we have availability beyond that necessary to serve our Member-Owners. We contact municipal utilities, cooperatives, and utilities across the Midwest in search of such potential customers. Transactions like these can provide value to Member-Owners and benefit employees, coal suppliers, other vendors, and the regional economy.