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Understanding the Grid Unlike water or gas, electricity cannot be stored.[1] It must be generated and then used immediately. Furthermore, electricity follows the “path of least resistance”, so it generally cannot be routed in a specific direction. This means generation and transmission operations in North America must be monitored and controlled in real-time, 24 hours a day, to ensure a consistent and ample flow of electricity. This requires the cooperation and coordination of hundreds of electricity industry participants. NERC is responsible for aspects of an international electricity system that serves 334 million people, and has some 211,000 miles (340,000 km) of high-voltage transmission line. This diagram below depicts the basic flow of electricity: how it is created at power plants and other generating facilities, and transported across high-voltage transmission and lower-voltage distribution lines, to reach homes and businesses. Transformers at substations step the electric voltage up and down to efficiently deliver power to the customers. The Generation
and Transmission components make up the “bulk power system”.
If you put
dozens or even hundreds of these assets together, you get a “Control
Area”, in which the balancing authority matches generation with customer
demand, and the transmission operator monitors the flows over the
transmission system and voltages at substations. Control areas
are defined by the electricity meters at their boundaries, which measure
the power flowing into and out of the area. Control areas are connected
to each other by “tie lines.” |
