Regulated utilities are less incentivized to dispatch their coal plants economically in the market because they can more easily recover losses incurred through their regulated rate base, studies have previously shown.
Resources are dispatched into the market based on price — a plant operator will make a net positive revenue as long as the cost of operating its facility remains below the market price of power. Plants are dispatched into the market either through offering them in the day-ahead market, where MISO dispatches those units on an economic basis, or forced through on a “must-run” basis, which means units are scheduled to operate regardless of economics.
