During its January meeting, the Missouri River Energy Services Board of Directors increased the lump sum it pays members to install behind-the-meter generation — typically diesel generators — through reserved capacity agreements, MRES reported in its MRES Today newsletter for February 2024.
The lump-sum bonus was increased to $4 per kilowatt monthly for 10 years, starting in June 2025.
“RCAs have proved to be economical, efficient ways for MRES and its members to meet capacity needs and enhance reliability locally and regionally,” MRES noted.
Missouri River has RCAs with 19 members for 156 megawatts of member-owned generation through 2052.
This represents a significant share of Missouri River’s generation portfolio that is specifically used to help meet resource adequacy requirements in the Southwest Power Pool and Midcontinent Independent System Operator markets.
SPP and MISO are the two regional transmission organizations that serve MRES members.
The lump-sum bonus structure was added in 2023 to incentivize new generation, and this increase is the latest of several adjustments the Board has made to RCAs in recent years.
In 2021, the RCAs were updated to better align with RTO rules, and in January 2022, MRES increased the RCA rate for installed generation from $2-$3 to $5 kW per month.
“Grid reliability remains a top concern for MRES and its members, and RCAs are a win-win deal for participating members and Missouri River,” said MRES Vice President of Power Supply and Operations Terry Wolf.
“Significant inflation and evolving market conditions are making it more expensive to install generation, and this move significantly increases Missouri River’s portion of cost share and more accurately reflects our goal to cost share with the members on new member generation to about 70-90%,” he said.
“We believe this increase is reasonable due to the added local reliability benefits RCAs provide and recent material inflation, and we hope this move will continue to encourage more participation in the program,” Wolf said in the newsletter article.
