Conclusion of series on the struggle to build and operate the North American power grid
Open Access Article Originally Published: November 08, 2003
1960s Solution
In mid 60s the four regions of the ISG interconnect and commence operating normally-in-parallel and shortly thereafter interconnect with PJM that has organized itself as a single control area for that purpose. Interconnection is finally extended to utilities in New York, New England, Canada and Northern Michigan that had been operating together as CANUSE (Canada and US Eastern) to form a single Eastern Interconnection operating normally-in-parallel from the Rocky Mountains to the Atlantic Ocean and from Canada to Florida. Group name is changed to NAPSIC or North American Power Systems Interconnection Committee. Utilities in parts of Michigan and Texas decline the invitation to interconnect so they may avoid Federal regulation.
Later, Texas and Oklahoma operating companies in a holding company system, find it desirable to connect the two parts of its system for operation normally-in-parallel so as to leave no doubt it qualifies for an exemption from the “death sentence”, Section 11 of the Public Utility Holding Company Act. At midnight one dark night, it closes a switch connecting the two parts of its integrated system, and gets an order from a State of Texas judge ordering the switch to remain closed.
Instant fury in South Texas!
South Texans get an order from a Federal Judge permitting opening the switch and they weld it open. They tear down a half a mile of transmission line so it cannot easily be reconnected. A war of litigation starts with battles before two or three administrative agencies and several courts.
Meanwhile, for two years there is an attempt to operate normally-in-parallel with another large Interconnection west of the Rockies to the Pacific Ocean but that proves infeasible because of weakness in the transmission lines across the Rocky Mountains. Some utilities in the Eastern Interconnection create institutional arrangements (power pools) to make it economically feasible to install still larger generating units and they strengthen interconnections among their members using "ehv" extra high voltage transmission of 345 kV and above, necessary to carry out power pooling.
After the 1965 Northeast blackout, institutions later called "reliability councils" are formed to fund necessary computer simulation studies of the paths power flows will take normally and in emergencies so that cascading outages might be prevented. Before that, studies were carried out informally by engineers of the electric utilities that were interconnected but they had to struggle to get funds for those studies.
[Author's Comment: I was a Federal Power Commission attorney at the time of the blackout and participated in the investigation albeit at a pretty low level, In an article I wrote in 1966 entitled “Northeast Electric Bulk Power Supply” I suggested that institutions were needed to fund these studies. The regional councils weren’t formed because of my suggestion but for other reasons. ]
These councils ultimately cooperated to form NERC, North American Electric Reliability Council and it assumed responsibility for developing rules for the operation of interconnected systems as well as for monitoring reliability.
1970s Solution
Airlines push the turbine manufacturers into making more efficient jet engines, up to 42% efficiency (electric utilities didn't care because regulatory authorities permitted them to pass on their fuel costs promptly to their customers) and these are used also for aero-derivative turbine-generators, permitting even lower cost electric power when energy from natural gas is available at costs not too much higher than coal. Then waste heat from the combustion turbine is recovered by a HRSG (heat recovery steam generator) and used in a steam turbine to generate still more electric energy bringing the efficiency up to first 50% and then 60%. Their greater efficiency and lower cost of construction permit use of natural gas as a fuel for base load generation.
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