The Personal Website of Mark W. Dawson


Containing His Articles, Observations, Thoughts, Meanderings,
and some would say Wisdom (and some would say not).

The Electrical Bulk Power Grid

The ability to reliability transmit bulk electrical power across North America is critical to our economy and society. Reliable electricity service is essential to the nation’s health, welfare, and security. In 2000, the National Academy of Engineering named the modern transmission system as one of the greatest inventions of the 20th century. Powering America’s homes, factories, and gadgets, reliable electricity is a staple for modern comfort and the production of valuable goods and services. Yet as interwoven as the electric grid is into our daily lives, few understand how electricity is delivered to the consumer and the policies that influence this process. Despite the grid’s functioning exceptionally well, many concerns exist about grid vulnerabilities, whether from equipment and power line failures, natural causes or from terrorists trying to disrupt the power grid.

The high-voltage bulk power transmission system that interconnects the nation’s generating plants and provides the electricity that we rely on in our daily lives is a remarkably complex infrastructure as follows:

The North American Electric Reliability Corporation (NERC) is a nonprofit corporation based in Atlanta, Georgia, and was formed on March 28, 2006, as the successor to the North American Electric Reliability Council (also known as NERC). The original NERC was formed on June 1, 1968, by the electric utility industry to promote the reliability and adequacy of bulk power transmission in the electric utility systems of North America. NERC's mission states that it is to "ensure the reliability of the North American bulk power system."

The NERC is composed of six regional entities, each one encompassing several States and Canadian Provinces as follows:

The NERC has Interconnections between the Regional Entities as follows:

  • Eastern Interconnectioncovers most of eastern North America, extending from the Great Plains to the Atlantic seaboard, excluding most of Texas. The Eastern Interconnection is tied to the Western Interconnection via high-voltage DC transmission facilities and also has ties to non-NERC systems in northern Canada.
  • The Western Interconnectioncovers most of western North America, from the Rocky Mountains to the Pacific coast. It is tied to the Eastern Interconnection at six points and also has ties to non-NERC systems in northern Canada and Northwestern Mexico.
  • The Texas Interconnectioncovers most of the state of Texas. It is tied to the Eastern Interconnection at two points and also has ties to non-NERC systems in Mexico.
  • The Quebec Interconnection covers the province of Quebec and is tied to the Eastern Interconnection. About one-third of Canada's installed power (42 GW out of 130) and about one-third of Canada's production (184 TWh out of 567) are in this interconnection. Despite being a functionally separate interconnection, the Quebec Interconnection is often considered to be part of the Eastern Interconnection.

Efforts to enhance the electric grid’s reliability and promote competitive wholesale electric markets have largely succeeded, encouraging new generation development, lower operating costs, and greater availability. However, we have the problems of an aging infrastructure, inconsistent federal and individual state mandates and regulations, physical and cyber terrorism, and weather events that all threaten the transmission system's reliability. The NERC 2022 Long-Term Reliability Assessment Infographic is alarming as to the ten-year projection of possible problems in supplying the demands for electrical bulk power:

These risks must be addressed to ensure the reliability of the Electrical Bulk Power Grid. In addition, each entity should be required to modernize its equipment and transmission lines to operate in a technologically standardized manner. Redundancy and replacement equipment must be stockpiled to ensure that in the event of failure, or the destruction of critical equipment, it does not result in long-term outages of electrical power. Although this would be a long-term and expensive proposition, it would be a long-term benefit in economic and reliability stability. This would seem to be a valid expenditure of Federal Infrastructure funds, but such funding should only be done through loans and grants. The actual engineering and construction efforts should be undertaken by the electrical companies that supply the power to this Electrical Bulk Power Grid, as they have the knowledge, skill, and ability to accomplish this task.