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MidAmerican Energy Co. plans to join the Midwest Independent Transmission System Operator Inc. (Midwest ISO), which manages one of the world’s largest energy markets. It’s a move the Des Moines-based utility says will provide its customers with more reliable and less costly electricity, while enabling it to tap into a bigger transmission grid in which to sell its growing wind-energy production.

MidAmerican, which serves more than 722,000 electric customers, announced last week that by Sept. 1, it intends to integrate into the Midwest ISO. The voluntary regional transmission organization operates in 13 states and the Canadian province of Manitoba, with a primary function of ensuring reliable operation of a regional power grid made up of 93,600 miles of high-voltage power lines.

The change, which essentially means MidAmerican will turn over functional control of its transmission system to the Midwest ISO, will require approval by both the Iowa Utilities Board (IUB) as well as the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC). Mid-American’s service area covers a 10,600-square-mile region from Sioux Falls, S.D., to the Quad Cities area of Iowa and Illinois.

MidAmerican officials said the change will have no impact on base electric rates, which have been stable since 1995, and that the company will maintain its commitment to keep base electricity rates unchanged through 2013. Efficiencies gained from membership could enable the company to keep rates stable beyond that period as well, said Dean Crist, MidAmerican’s vice president for regulation.

The decision was made following an extensive analysis weighing the costs and benefits, Crist said.

“There are a lot of benefits that Midwest ISO brings,” he said. “So we now believe that we have a business case to join Midwest ISO. We’ve always told our customers that once we had a business case to join, that we would join.”

As MidAmerican’s wind-energy production continues to increase, being a member of the Midwest ISO will also provide it with better opportunities to expand its access to the energy markets, said Jeff Gust, MidAmerican’s vice president for energy supply management. “We feel we can be more involved with the decisions in the process (for building more transmission capacity), rather than being on the outside looking in,” he said.

MidAmerican would bring approximately 7,000 megawatts (MW) of generating capacity into the system, including more than 1,200 MW of wind-generated power. The Midwest ISO’s footprint currently includes about 130,000 MW of generating capacity from nearly 5,400 generating units.

In June 2003, the IUB rejected applications by Interstate Power and Light Co. and MidAmerican to transfer control of their electric transmission assets to TRANSLink Development Co. LLC The board said the proposed arrangement did not adequately demonstrate optimal cost effectiveness, and that the model could limit its authority to review the utilities’ transmission costs. IPL, which joined Midwest ISO in 2000, sold its transmission assets to ITC Midwest in 2007.

Once MidAmerican submits its application to the IUB, the board will have 90 days in which to make a decision, but the panel could extend that period by another 90 days.

Crist said Sept. 1 is “a very aggressive goal” to meet, given the agreements and regulatory approvals needed, but one the company should be able to reach.

“It’s not a flip of the switch,” he said. “There’s a lot of coordination required.”