What It Really Takes To Keep Power Moving
In January and February, when the snow was flying and temperatures plummeted, many Petit Jean Electric Cooperative’s members expressed appreciation that they never lost their electric power, nor the warmth and shelter of their homes. Of course, we cannot promise that someone somewhere will never lose power because of weather, but we do work very hard to design and build resiliency into our electric distribution system so that our members can have reliable power, even under the worst conditions, when it’s needed most.
A well-designed, resilient, and reliable electric distribution system does not just happen by chance. A great deal of long-term planning and strategic design must take place, anticipating the potential threats that can take out our power system — from weather events to cyberattacks.
The challenge is that electricity must move smoothly and uninterrupted from the moment it is generated until it is used. Power is produced in real-time at the power plants, transmitted across long distances, and delivered to homes, hospitals, businesses, and farms — every second of every day. The electric grid operates on a knife-edge where supply must always match demand.
Utilities use sophisticated technology and equipment to ensure that as folks turn on their ovens, computers, televisions, washing machines, heat, air conditioners, etc., power plants ramp up simultaneously to prevent frequency and power drops.
This chain of reliability depends on many moving pieces: well-maintained equipment, power line and right-of-way maintenance, grid conditions, operator response, weather, cybersecurity, and regulatory compliance. When any link in the chain breaks, the impact is not just local. It can ripple across multiple electric systems, creating outages, safety risks, and costly disruptions.
Lost generation and forced outages are not just inconvenient. They result in lost production, lost revenue, and even expensive damage (i.e., frozen pipes, water damage, etc.) for homes, businesses, and farms. When you think about it, without electric power, nearly everything comes to a complete stop.
So, both unreliability and reliability cost money. However, like the old STP oil additive television commercial says, “You can pay me now, or you can pay me later.” The basic message is that paying later (neglecting to take care of the car’s engine) will cost a lot more in repair costs in the long run than if you simply maintain the car’s engine in a timely manner. The same concept applies to the electric system.
The wise choice is always to invest in reliability now, always keeping the system in strong working order. This requires day-to-day discipline and maintaining our equipment and power lines, operating responsibly and within limits. Our team and systems must be “at the ready” to respond at a moment’s notice when changing system conditions require us to move quickly.
Reliability is becoming more challenging. The electric grid is being asked to do more with less tolerance for disruption. Several trends are increasing system stress:
- Rising load demand from electrification and data centers.
- More variable generation sources, some less reliable than others (like intermittent wind and solar), undercut reliable “always available” baseload generation (coal, natural gas, and nuclear).
- Limited transmission expansion, as transmission lines are expensive to build and maintain, not to mention the general public sentiment of “not in my backyard.”
- More frequent and intense weather events.
These are not just “future stresses.” These stresses exist today and are reshaping electric grid operations, leaving less margin for error. To face these challenges and maintain reliable electric power, utilities need electric systems that are more adaptive, more datadriven and more resilient than ever before.
How Do You Spell R-E-L-I-A-B-L-E Electric Power?
-
Lineworker Appreciation Day is celebrated on April 13. Petit Jean Electric’s lineworkers play a vital role in the reliable distribution of power to homes, farms and businesses. Resource adequacy: Ensuring there is enough generating capacity — from a diverse mix of sources like natural gas, nuclear, hydro, solar, and wind — to meet projected electricity demand even during peak periods.
- Equipment performance: Maintaining the mechanical health of power plants, transmission lines, and transformers through proactive maintenance and root-cause analysis of failures to keep units online.
- Localized monitoring: Using Supervisory Control and Data Acquisition (SCADA) systems to provide real-time data and remote control of grid components. Tracking performance using standardized indices such as System Average Interruption Duration Index (outage duration) and System Average Interruption Frequency Index (outage frequency).
- Infrastructure resilience: Building the grid to withstand and recover quickly from sudden disturbances, such as severe weather or physical threats. This includes physical hardening against extreme weather and ensuring the grid can “self-heal” using automated switching.
- Advanced monitoring: Utilizing smart-grid technologies and sensors for constant real-time visibility, allowing operators to isolate problems before they cause cascading blackouts.
- Balanced load: Balancing supply and demand in real-time. This involves "ramping" power plant generators up or down as consumer usage fluctuates to keep the system stable.
- Legal and regulatory compliance: Adhering to mandatory Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) and North American Electric Reliability Corporation (NERC) standards that govern everything from vegetation management near power lines to cybersecurity protocols.
- Efficient restoration: Utilizing smart-grid technology and skilled repair crews to minimize the Customer Average Interruption Duration Index.